Dear Texas,
The state of education in our beloved Tejas—if rated on YELP—would be a lone star. On a report card, political leaders have earned an F in government and economics. And, over the past couple of years our political change-makers would most certainly have earned a few referrals to the principal’s office for bullying. Texas, why are you trying to make a business out of an institution?
Education in America has provided countless generations of students a good start, a fair chance and the opportunity to dream. Why are we being used as a pawn in a political game? Texas Education Freedom Accounts provide state funds to families for enrollment in any school—charter, private, or otherwise—they deem suitable for their children. What has been called a voucher is essentially a coupon to get half off tuition to out of reach private schools and to take your “business” anywhere but public. Open market capitalism has entered education.
Had educators been consulted when determining the need or feasibility of such an endeavor, schools would have welcomed politicians to immerse themselves in the day to day, year to year goings on of a school. How can policy makers enact laws about education if they don’t understand how a school runs, how students interact, how parents support and how society impacts? Texas, have you considerd how uninvolved parents of the modern student are? Or considered the shift in family dynamics and its affect on how a student can learn? Politicians have judged the entire public school institution based on test scores, but test scores do not paint the whole picture. As it stands, test scores allege that public schools aren’t doing their job. In reality, we’re doing our job and more. Beyond test scores, public schools get to know our students and their families. We see the real issues: an epidemic of absences and tardiness, unstable living, custody situations, proliferation of unhealthy eating, lack of verbal interaction with children at home, drug use in homes, intense/nonstop club-sport involvement, throw-away mentality, physical inactivity, overworked parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, lack of medical care, misguided parenting, outsourcing of parenting, loss of community, lack of communication, and the list could certainly go on.
Another element to consider for low test scores in public schools is the shear volume and frequency of testing. Too many tests given too many times. Imagine administering a test to a kindergarten class of 25 students on IPads!? Replete with usernames, passwords, and session codes, an entire army of school staff must come in to help the students get logged in. This happens multiple times a year. It is chaos! Five year olds have perfected the art of clicking the questions away to be rid of the thing. Kids are not thinking to show what they know, they just want to go to recess.
Speaking of recess. Are school choice locations all set up with appropriate recess time and facilities? Public school’s recess has been whittled down to 20 minutes a school day. Are schools housed in old K-Marts equipped with playgrounds in compliance to the hilt? An old loading dock could be fun to jump into if you line it with mulch or create a ball pit…
Teachers are simply not considered in any of the ludicrous decisions that are made regarding education in this state. Public schools are closing in droves. Beacons of learning for countless communities, extinguished. Public schools in neighborhoods create a hub, a school within walking distance for children to gain independence in their walks to and from school. Neighborhood schools provide the field or gym to practice community sports leagues. In times of natural disasters, schools are the place community members in need can come to be safe. Instead, through vouchers we are encouraging taking your child to the aforementioned abandoned K-Mart. Buyers beware, schools with recruiters, flashy marketing, and Chief Executive Officers are not immune from going the way of the Blue Light Special.
Dear School Districts
Schools are not a product. Educators are not trained in business. Do not go the way of the charter school.
When my school principal recapped her latest principal meeting, it was as if I was listening to a company’s need to increase revenue to expand market presence. The message to principals and their schools—deliver the best product and sell, sell, sell! What about teaching?
Like the latest coffee chain popping up around every sector of the city, “magnet” schools are the siren’s call to parents. Is your public school district losing enrollment? Create a new “product line” of magnet school programs, online schools, and ramped up sports. Charters will activate the blitzkrieg of marketing to sell what the parents want to hear—“Want your child to learn Latin? Our school will do THAT AND MORE”. Charter schools study the parent psyche to sell exactly what they want to buy. And buy they can now do! Parents wishing for their middle schooler to become a cyber security expert can now enroll them in a specialized middle school. High school students interested in anything from health careers to communications media studies can start their career in high school.
But isn’t it all smoke and mirrors? Are the teachers teaching these specialized classes any different than the teachers teaching high school biology, government, or technology classes? Let’s allow students to learn and develop in age appropriate ways, allow them to explore clubs and sports and community.
Children change their minds. Decisions to attend these magnet schools are really parental hopes that their child will follow a certain career path. Why are we setting a career path in the heads of children aged 12 years? Middle schools are a time to adjust to more rigorous general curriculum, adjust to changing extracurricular options, and adjusting to more independence. The latest product in the school-turned-business sector is the online only schools. Did Covid lockdown not show that online school is not the most effective?
All of the schooling options and extracurricular options are reminding me of car sales. Try to sell the customer the highest package with all the bells and whistles. However, car owners and parents…the bells and whistles become obsolete as soon as the newest year model rolls off the assembly line. In education, if we are constantly trying to keep up with the preverbal Jones’, schools have not a chance.
Dear Parents
You are your child’s first and most influential teacher. Do not outsource that role to every business, product, club, app, or influencer you see. A solid education is your gift to your child’s future. Help your child to value the gift. Throughout history, people have fought for the right to be educated, and in our current climate people fight to not have to go. Make school sacred, something to revere. Do not plan family vacations when school is in session. If you simply cannot get the kids to school on time, wake up earlier. Everything is a first in a child’s life, and your interactions with society and its norms are imprinted on the next generation.
Sadly, so much of a child’s life has been outsourced to paid “contractors” rather than being experienced and fostered through caring parents and families. First words are now spoken to speech therapists in school settings—a last ditch effort from parents alarmed that their 4 year old does not speak. The children are not speaking, because they are not being spoken to. Tablets and online media have become babies’ and toddlers’ only communication, yet it is sadly only a one-way conversation. Potty training is on the slideshow for kindergarten registration—a reminder to parents of almost-5- year-olds that they must train their children to go potty before kindergarten. Free play with friends in neighborhoods has been taken to the high intensity, high cost trampoline businesses that even make you buy a pair of socks. Let kids play for free in the front yard with neighbors.
School is a place to teach basic knowledge to kids, but parents, you are expecting us to do so much more. Beyond the arithmetic, we are having to close gaps that are beyond our expertise. We help heal traumatic psychological wounds, we ensure children can see, are clothed, are fed, feel safe and loved. If all of that could be done in the home, so much more learning could be done at school.
Teachers are counselors, mentors, positive faces. We sponsor your child’s clubs and buy supplies and things kids need. We want our kids’ families to be involved and come to the school on more occasions than just promotion or graduation ceremonies. We want parents to be part of the PTA, boosters, Watch Dogs, and other volunteer roles. We want to know YOU and build community, because schools are a child’s first experience with what it means to work together.
It takes a village to raise a child…not just a school.
Dear Teachers
Don’t give up. Education is having a moment. We will persevere. Generations of public school teachers have prepared some of the most brilliant minds. And the most inspiring part of that—that education in its analog form laid the foundation for the development of rockets to space, cures for illnesses, innovations in technology, and the sharing of ideas around the world. Let us embrace the future—it is inevitable—but let us scaffold the minds of children with age-appropriate development. Let the brains of young children play, talk, fight, regulate emotions, make mistakes, break bones, use blocks to free build, and NEVER be allowed an electronic device.
Teachers are creative people, we are knowledgeable people, many with prior careers and talents that would amaze anyone if they only knew. We are young, we are old, we have successful children of our own, we have successful kids we taught decades ago that still send us graduation, wedding, and life event invites. We know that “slow and steady wins the race“ and “the grass isn’t always greener” have meaning far beyond the lesson on idioms. We show up every day, and teach and have fun, and give hugs and clean up spilled milk with nary a tear. We know charter and private schools may look greener in this current “drought” of trust, but public schools are the best, and year by year from ages 5 to 18, will steadily educate the masses for whatever the future holds.
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