Re: Pinellas school bd. attorney says parents can examine FCAT

[Art Burke <aburke@VANSD.ORG>]

Dear Juanita:

Thank you for your extended remarks.

You seem to long for an educational Nirvana that includes teachers (those who are not educrats, anyhow), kids and parents, and no one else.  That's taking a lot of the "public" out of public schools.

What exactly does "local control" of the public schools mean to you?

Art


>>> Jedoyon@AOL.COM 09/06 4:39 PM >>>
In a message dated 9/6/01 1:39:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time, aburke@VANSD.ORG 
writes:

<< Well, do you want to control the education of your children or the
education of the children of others, as well? >>


Dear Art,

I don't know what sort of answer to this question you're looking for, or how
much of my ramblings you've read in the past, so I'll just start at the
beginning.

During my 16 years as a public school parent, I've developed some attitudes
and objectives for myself that have worked for me and kept me (somewhat)
sane.  Actually, some of my attitudes come from the 13 years I spent as a
public school student (11 different schools) and a child of my parents, who
were always supportive of my education and our neighborhood schools.  I
remember getting along very well with those who worked in education (call me
a teacher pleaser).  Some people are born with a high EQ or are in a place in
their families that enhances it or something.  I am the youngest of 7
children.  I was blessed with experienced, reasonable parents.

Anyway, sociology fascinates me, and so does education, so I work on both, as
a hobby and a calling.  Having 4 children travel through the maze of public
education, at least 2 of whom are well on their way to becoming public school
teachers themselves, has made it quite easy and natural to be an
involved,"self directed learner," in the field of education.

First and foremost, the education of a child is the responsibility of his or
her parents.  Many parents (probably a great majority) accept this
responsibility and utilize their resources to seek out appropriate
educational opportunities for their children.  Some parents are not equipped,
for one reason or another, to do this.  These facts are the foundation upon
which any educational improvement must be built.

The first question of any educational "leader" should be, "What do parents
want for their children?"  All this "partnerships for learning" crap is just
that.  Crap!  Every educational reform effort begins with a bunch of parent
alienating jargon.  "Oh boy, honey, Nathan's school is having a parent night.
 Let's go learn about rubrics and the 7 part writing process!"  Give me a
break!  Hmmm... Three parents show up to the parent night for WASL-- must be
they're all a bunch-of-apathetic-couch-potato-losers.

The second most important set of adults in the educational life of a child
are teachers.  If communication between parents and teachers is good,
children will succeed.  If it is not good-- forget it, man!  What all this
educational government and business interference does is gum up the works so
that neither parents nor  teachers can ever do what they know is best for
kids.  It's all become too big.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist.  I believe that someone must care for
children.  Government and big business have simply decided that parents will
never do right by their children ever again.  And teachers?  Well, you know
what they say about those who can't.....   "Trust us, we know what's best."
-- the ed trust (see even our name says it all!)

Something has to break this vicious circle of bureaucracy = apathy =
bureaucracy = apathy = bureaucracy.  I'm out to do away with the apathy, a
much harder, yet more rewarding, task than increasing the bureaucracy.
(that's more rewarding for the individual, not the educrats and
curriculum/testing companies)

The "calling" part of my work in education is that I have always felt the
need to be involved at a level where I thought I could accomplish the most
for children in public school-- not just my children but whatever children
were in my children's class or school or district or state or nation.  As I
have watched local control become a farce, I've become involved on a level I
never imagined.  Instead of running the band fundraiser and baking for the
kindergarten class, I'm now running for state superintendent and buttoning up
the tests.  But, if not me, then who?  Who will fight this takeover of our
lives and the lives of our children?  Who will tell the "education
government" that this is where they get off our backs?

No, I don't want to control the education of other people's children.  I want
to improve the communication, erase the apathy and empower parents and
teachers to find what their children need in their local public schools.
This is the least we can expect in a country that claims certain truths about
rights and freedoms of the individual to be self evident.

Juanita Doyon
The only viable alternative to data collection is human engagement.

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of
thinking we were at when we created them."-- Albert Einstein

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