Going to New Orleans

Tomorrow, I'm flying out to New Orleans until July 7th. It's mostly business, but I'm hoping to mix some sightseeing in and eating way too much a variety of cuisine. I'm not looking forward to the heat or the humidity.

Sunday is the start of the NCUEA and then on Thursday, July 1, is the start of the NEA-RA. It is my understanding that Diane Ravitch will be speaking on one of the days of the RA and I'm going to try not to be a stalker bringing her newest book in the hopes of getting it signed by her.

I can't believe that I'm already packed up and ready to go!

Why this parenting gig is hard . . .

I've blogged over the years about my three kidlets (who aren't really kidlets anymore). Two of them are legally adults, which to some out there would mean that life as a parent is easier. There are aspects of parenting that have gotten easier, but others' not so much.

It's easy to step in on your child's behalf when they are small and there is something going on that you know is way too big for them to handle. When your child is an "adult," that call is a much tougher one to make. Yesterday, after witnessing a lot of angst from Artist Girl, I stepped in on her behalf and I'm glad I did so.

Of course, I didn't step in without talking it over with her first and showing her the e-mail that I had typed up. Last night I worried about sending that e-mail because it had to do with her enrollment at the cosmetology school she is attending. It was starting to feel to me that this school was more interested in getting her tuition than in teaching her the skills she needs in order to get a cosmetology license.

I researched online yesterday afternoon and was able to obtain e-mail addresses of the president of her school as well as the national director of the program. In my e-mail to both people, I outlined the concerns that Artist Girl was having and directly stated what would be the best remedy. I also pointed out that AG is not on any financial aid and had to take out loans in substantial amounts of money (a portion of which I am responsible for because she only qualified for about 2/3rds of her tuition through loans).

When AG went to school today, she was called into the Dean's Office. They discussed the e-mail that I sent and made the switch in her program that I requested. It was the same remedy that AG had requested a month ago, but was told it could not happen!

A month ago, I had asked AG if she wanted me to do anything and she had said that she could handle it on her own. I felt it was important for me to trust that she could handle it on her own. She did handle it by talking to the Dean a month ago, but as I said, they would not agree to the switch in her schedule. When I talked to her yesterday, I was faced with a kid who was very down on herself because nothing had changed and I know she probably felt very defeated.

This is where parenting can be so tough, balancing letting your kids having their independence versus knowing when you still need to step in when they need help. I still think I made the right decision a month ago to let her try to take care of the situation at her school. Yesterday, I asked her permission to step in on her behalf and am relieved that we were able to get it resolved. (I am also pleased that I didn't have to do anything beyond sending an e-mail - but would have if I needed to and which I alluded to in the e-mail. Don't make me go all mama bear on you!)

Charter Schools & Teachers Unions

In my last blog post, I was going to go out and buy Ravitch's new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. The book has been bought & read. If you are a teacher or in education, you need to buy this book now.

Ravitch touches on a variety of issues in her discussion about what ails American education. One of those issues has to do with charter schools. Al Shanker the founder of the United Federation of Teacher (UFT) was one of the originators of the concept of charter schools. Shanker's wanted charter schools to be a place where teachers would run a school within school. The students they would serve would be those students in need in extra interventions. His idea was that by creating these schools, teachers would be able to develop innovative techniques that then could be shared with other teachers.

Charter schools were never meant to be a wedge issue. The original intent was not to create competition between public schools and charter schools. It is a plan that I think many of us in education would have fully embraced under its original concept. One of the problems that I have with charter schools is the idea that those who choose to work in a charter school are somehow more committed to their students that those who choose to work in public schools.

I do not believe that this is the case. I have worked in public education for ten years now. My colleagues work in adverse conditions every day and are subject to criticism and ridicule from an uncaring public who seem to believe that if you are a teacher in public education then you must be lazy and inept.

When we create systems between the haves (charter schools) and the have nots (public schools), we create rifts. Some like this idea of competition because they believe that by having competition it will force public schools to become better. Ravitch clearly shows why this has not been the case. What has happened instead is that parents who want better for their kids and have the means to do so pull them out of struggling schools and put them into charter schools. Charter schools are then allowed to create rules by which children and their parents must abide by or they are kicked out. This is not the case in the public schools.

This competition between charter schools & public schools does not have to exist. Most of us in education want to do a good job in educating our students. We want to have the means to hold our students accountable for when they create a disruptive learning environment. We want to have the means to be creative and try different strategies and techniques. We want to have the means to hold our colleagues and our administrators accountable.

Instead what has happened is that charter schools get to be creative, do not have to abide by the same laws & regulations as public schools, and are allowed to remove disruptive students. Teachers who are not doing their jobs should be removed & can be removed as long as administrators are conducting evaluations on a regular basis and are not lazy & inept themselves. (Seriously the joke among many teachers in my district is that those who can't become administrators.)

Personally I like Al Shanker's vision of charter schools instead of the current system of creating rifts between educators - many of which became teachers because they wanted to make a difference.