Agreeing with everything a teacher says or does without any objections, many parents go along with "the educational program" for fear that if they do go against some thing in the classroom or at the school their children might suffer.
Teachers have many plans, ideas, and thoughts on what to do with those clay pieces called, students that show up everyday to be molded into something new. Parents observe their creations take on new art forms by the hands of creative teachers; therefore, sons and daughters are never quite the same.
Visions cost: money, time and energy of which most of us have little. Therefore, why is it that we feed into the pressure put upon us by children to do what the teacher says? These teachers don't go home with our children and hear, "...but my teacher said...Santa is real...There was a Grinch who stole Christmas...the elves aren't evil..." and so on.
The teacher is like a god, she is right, you are wrong! But everything these educators say and do is not right! Parents have a right to take a stand against all things inappropriate, wicked, immoral, unrighteous, strange, prejudice, rude, and ignorant! Sometimes teachers, like parents, are used by children as excuses to get their way or to view things they have no business looking at or experiencing. Parents would be shocked to see how some of these educators really lived their lives apart from school. Putting one's faith wholeheartedly in a teacher and his or her vision can be dangerous!
When children come home with far too much paper and instructions from teachers, who work hard to help students while being rewarded periodically for creativity, parents already tired from working for bosses who also have many visions, become overwhelmed. There is so much to do at home, and even more that requires money. There is always just one more thing a classroom or school needs for someone's bright idea, "Please send XYZ with your child...give them X amount of dollars for...Won't you please donate...? Could you be available to...?"
The more you give, the more some expect! Asking for money and contributions for visions should have a limit, but since there are no set rules, as parents, we make them! Consider how long a school year is and how many years a child will have teachers who want the parents to do this, buy that...etc. while complaining in break rooms about apathy.
Teachers, as well as parents, could all make their jobs easier if they didn't expect so much from one another. Can't we teach personal traditions to our own children and real American history as well as our own ethnic history? Can't we get a discount on field trips and take our children on our time? How about we arrange to meet with other parents away from the school without a push to join the PTA under the watchful eyes of school leadership? What about school performances and athletics, is this something that really needs to carry on for weeks when national scores are low at certain schools and there are more than enough online and offline community classes sometimes competing with the schools? Is it necessary to meet with a teacher at a parent teacher conference on their time when there is an entire school year that one can call, write, email, text, and live chat about a child if a problem should arise--lose the archaic venting/progress report session that is carefully planned anyway based on how knowledgeable a teacher wants to look when seated in front a skeptical parent. We can go on and on brainstorming about lessening one another's load.
In closing, visions cost money and all the rules, instructions, requirements, and history that goes along with making something happen is great if one is prepared to add more work to his or her title. The help is not always going to be there just because it sounds like a great idea, so expect it. For some educational leaders with so-called bright ideas, they would be better off saving the trees--systems that make learning more complicated should be outlawed!
Some educators need to focus on improving what they already have and be grateful for the time and money they already got, before asking for more!
Nicholl McGuire
