Student and teacher safety Act of 2006

[learningtoserve]

I guess I would feel violated to a point but if something was found and it prevented something from happening I wuldn't mind. I understand it is a scary experience but if in the end it his helping I can understand that bill.

[Marnie]

You wrote:

I will stand up a little for parents.

There is a natural tendency within school systems to whine about the lack of parent involvement, unless parents actually do get involved then they whine about that.

What schools really want are compliant parents, they want us to come and be involved only on their terms. What they don't want are actual suggestions or real involvement. Often times parents are not involved I would agree with that, and we need to give parents back what they have given up and that is the power over their child's education. We should have more options for parental involvement. I think part of the problem is family breakdown and over-stressed working parents. Around 30-40% of all children today are born into single parent unmarried households. It is very hard if not impossible for these parents to be involved; they are working just to make ends meet. But we also see school start to become not about education, but day care, which is important but not the primary purpose of public education.

Much of the lack of involvement is simply a function of the changing family in the US, not a great thing, but a fact of modern life in the US.

Great...GREAT points!! You are absolutely correct. Which is a big problem with the teaching profession; teachers are expected to do so much more than teach. It is not at all fair.

I have a friend in VA who had her heart set on teaching, went to UVA to get some kind of education degree and then she had to be certified by the state, take more exams, etc. She was so disgusted with the process (some of her classmates had to take the exam multiple times until they passed!), and what she would be expected to do on a day-to-day basis within the classroom, that she walked out and took a teaching position at a community college, where you don't need to be certified. She made the comment to me that they were teaching people to be teachers, but not many could teach. I think her point is valid: teaching is a gift; I am not so sure you can be taught to teach.