GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

1. 

   Michael M.

   October 10th, 2009 9:00 am

   Wah? No comment on Item 2?

2. 

   Mary

   October 10th, 2009 9:32 am

   I agree with Bloomberg. How do you think parents would negotiate macro decisions? Without going into sound bites on how you hate Bloomberg/Tweed (you say it in almost every post. Is Thompson paying you?), please propose ways in which ALL parents would participate in macro decisions and how it would work?

3. 

   Pogue

   October 10th, 2009 10:00 am

   Dear Parents, 

   We will do whatever we want with your children no matter when, how, or where we choose to do it.  You may have given birth to them and brought them up, but they are ours now.  If we decide to limit their space in school, crowd them together, and abolish their cake sale fundraising opportunities, then that is what we’ll do.  Please, stay out of your children’s educational lives, and keep those tax payments coming in.

   P.S. Thank you, Mary.  Without parents like you, we wouldn’t be able to do to the city’s public school children what we’ve been doing to them for eight years now.

   Keep it Going, NYC.

4. 

   canwetalk

   October 10th, 2009 10:17 am

   Pogue don’t forget to add that through these “credit recovery” programs that principals use to inflate their graudation rate so they can get a bonus, your child will shamefully graduate from high school with a diploma that has absolutely no meaning. Parents don’t forget to thank the Eternal Mayor of NYC for short-changing your child.

5. 

   EFM

   October 10th, 2009 10:22 am

   Parents should be be allowed to give input, be it on small matters, or large.
   An involved parent knows more about what is going on in their child’s neighborhood, school, and class, than government officials could from their distant offices. They are aware of where the gaps are in the curriculum, because they are the ones that have to fill those gaps in order to insure that their children get a sound education. Yet they are the last to be consulted, if they are consulted at all, and the least likely to be taken seriously.

   For those, in government, who fail to grasp the concept, let me repeat it; PARENTS ARE FORCED TO FILL IN THE GAPS IN THEIR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION.
   That is why they need to be taken seriously.

6. 

   Loren Steele

   October 10th, 2009 10:49 am

   Bloomberg makes way too many unilateral decisions that affect parents’ budgets and security. I have a child who takes public transportation to school, and hides her cell phone in her backpack all day. She has been doing this for the last 2 years without incident. Her school is now promising random backpack searches and metal detectors to find and confiscate phones. I agree that cell phones have no place in the classroom, but tough enforcement is a belligerent action against the rights of parents to ensure the safety of our children outside the school walls. I don’t argue against the need to provide a healthy lunch for our students, but I would put banning bake sales at about 100 on a list of actions that would be effective. There are far too many unfunded programs that are necessary for a quality education, and bake sales have been the backbone of many fund raising efforts. It isn’t that the Mayor’s arguments lack legitimacy, it’s that they shouldn’t be the only basis for decisions in a democracy.

7. 

   sodeskune

   October 10th, 2009 11:02 am

   Mary, do you feel sorry for our poor little mayor that people are picking on him? Poor little dictator. The mayor and the chancellor have decided that in order to make all schools equal, every school is going to be crappy. Pogue, you’re the greatest. I love every post. Keep it going NYC - right into the crapper.

8. 

   John Hancock

   October 10th, 2009 2:01 pm

   EFM,

   I totally agree with you that parents should be allowed to give input no matter how small but I have to disagree with you on one point

   The idea that “PARENTS ARE FORCED TO FILL IN THE GAPS IN THEIR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION” is a poor approach or should I say mantra. I as a “parent, a learner an American, a Global citizen”or whatever I feel my title is, should feel and do feel it is my duty to help in the mosaic of what it takes to raise a child and build a community. Why there is a gap is open to a myriad of variables. I am not FORCED to do anything. I from the beginning feel it is my duty to be involved (as do you I hope)

   People have been generally reactive instead of proactive in my view and as a result, have gotten what they deserve. We tend to not take on the issues at hand hoping they will work out. I know I am rambling a bit but here is an example of what I mean not related to education.

   I saw a pack of cigarettes my friend brought back from Europe, on the box it just said “SMOKING KILLS” with a skull and crossbones. The truth in black and white, nothing more. In the States our cigarettes say “smoking may cause this or may cause that” I ask myself and you, why not just call it what it is? Let’s stop the B.S and start a real discussion. Why is it we are afraid to just admit the truth and admit our mistakes. Lets face it, we do not value education.

9. 

   EFM

   October 10th, 2009 9:06 pm

   Hancock,

   You misunderstand what I meant by forced. When a job needs to get done, you get up and do it. You do it because it is your duty, as a responsible parent, to help your children, That, however, does not blind you to the fact that your task has been made more difficult by the incompetence of others.

   You go on to say that we should admit that as a society, “we do not value education”.
   Society, may I remind you, is made up of individuals. What counts most in our lives and that of our children is what we do, as individuals.

10. 

    Michael M.

    October 10th, 2009 10:55 pm

    Mary,
    No one is suggesting 1.1 million kids’ parents have a giant bull session. But the fact is that Bloomberg and Klein have been ignoring PLENTY of informed input from parents that has trickled up through appropriate channels of elected parent representatives, whether PTA, PTA Presidents’ Councils, or CEC’s.

    And no, I’m not on anyone’s payroll. Nor do I need to be. Denouncing incompetent autocrats justs comes natural.

    My proposal, kind of you to ask: Klein and Bloomberg follow the law. That would allow for parent input more than previously, though still not as much as I’d like. In short, the problem is not on the output of the input, but on the intake of the input.

11. 

    canwetalk

    October 11th, 2009 12:49 pm

    The strongest ally a school can have are the parents. Their voice should be heard. We need their input in these make-or-break education issues. Parents should not be sitting on the sideline watching education happen but not being part of it. Parents are the integral part of the school community. When did schools begin to exist in isolation? BloomKlein or Kleinberg, depending on the issue at hand, cannot, should not, exclude the parents’ voice. I agree with MM, it should not be 1.1 million parents having a shout-out session because chaos does not bring reforms. But, a majority of parents who represent their schools should be included in all education reforms that will benefit not only their children but the children of NYC.

12. 

    NYC Educator

    October 11th, 2009 4:47 pm

    The most telling indication of how much this administration cares for parent concerns was its conflation of the number 2 and 3 concerns on its own survey in order to obscure the fact that the no. 1 parent concern was class size.

    Runner up, though, was Jim Liebman’s literally running away from involved parents. At the time, I think his title was “chief accountability officer.”

13. 

    QueensParent

    October 12th, 2009 1:38 pm

    It’s of course all just a myth pushed by folks that as best I can tell, wouldn’t like Mayor Bloomberg even if he had a (D) after his name, that parents have no input into the system. If anything, the Mayor has increased avenues for parental input into the system. Was there a parent coordinator in each school before he took over the system? The answer? No. No, this isn’t about whether parents have input. I have AMPLE input and participation opportunities in my local school and local district. No, what this is really about is using the shill of an argument to get at what these people really want, which is what the Mayor now has, and that is CONTROL of the school system. These people benefitted from a fractured, decentralized school system and they want a return to it. They are just using the “parental input” argument as cover for it.

Leave a Reply