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Reply to "Americans Are Not Informed!!"

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Originally posted by Brentenman:
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Originally posted by MADDOG 20/20:
Brent (and I am really not trying to be a smart*** here(Well, tell the truth and shame the devil, I guess I am) but I know what a rabid republican you are) thank George W and the past Republican lawmakers for the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND program that educated that poor kid who flunked geography! THE DOG


My wife would disagree with you. About time someone cleaned up the schools or made an honest effort to clean them up. She calls it a lack of personal effort and a lack of parental responsibility, along with some schools that just suck.

OBTW maddog, guess who joined GWB in getting No Child Left Behind started and passed? Why, good ole Uncle Teddy Kennedy himself.... Shame on YOU.

In my personal experience, many parents do try to get involved in their schools and are often ignored or otherwise turned away. For most parents, their first sense of a school district is their neighborhood school and their children's own teachers. When they do not feel that their efforts are welcome or appreciated there, they will seldom move onto higher levels of involvement.

Most schools and districts are not versed in volunteer management. The ones that are tend to pigeon-hole parents into tidy little roles that suit a particular teacher's or program's needs, without really considering the parents' needs or ideas. How involved does a parent want to become when their volunteer time is limited to mind-numbing tasks like cutting out math manipulatives, coloring in posters or decorating bulletin boards? While all are necessary tasks, I'm sure, they do not utilize the intelligence, spirit and ideas a parent can bring to a school and district.

Schools say they want parental involvement, much the same way that politicians say they want to hear from their constituents. But when push comes to shove, they really just want to be left alone to do what they were going to do anyway.

As one teacher told me, "I have to manage my class, I don't have time to manage volunteers too. They ask too many questions and won't just follow my directions. It's just easier to do it myself." (The principal of her school supported that notion as well.) Easier in the short run, perhaps. But in the long run, that teacher, principal and thus the school itself are discouraging parents from ongoing and higher levels of interaction in the public schools.

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