Our principals were talking yesterday about the number of kids who had were out of school. May schools would find that deplorable and "in need of improvement." (state term for noncompliance in a school.) They were looking individually thru "excuses" to make sure the students each had "better offers." Ex a child of new divorce going with only one parent for the holiday asked the other for a day with her before he went. That is not not caring enough to bring them to school. Sure, its easier to run a school when everyone comes all the time, but sometimes children need to be children and students of the world. One Coordinator summarized an article to the other "In North Dakota" (how's that 2 threads at once)" they found a great way to get families more time. They only run 4 days a week! And they save a bunch of money besides." They then went into cost savings that people would understand as a selling point even in this day of "good schools" demanding longer and longer hours. These are the people that run a school specifically to meet the needs of the children and one need the children and parents have, that they see as important, is time together. And the educational fertility that comes from children having full lives is a benefit to all. At higher grades the focus can be a day or two a week interning to find a mentor to shepherd a young person into a career but in Elementary, parents still offer the best access to "real world." Parents who care about the child's development though, not parents who care to "support" the system by demanding children comply (too often schools meaning behind "behave.") Parents who include the child in what they do.This is why PS is a good thing. Millions of kids in this country haveparents like Bev had who don't care.
The reason there are so many parents who dont' care is because over the past centruy and a half we've created an institution that allows, encourages, promotes, and fosters parents not to care. If you want to have kids and largely ignore them, fine, the government schools will take care of the problem.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.