The A+ Activist

I read something disturbing this morning. Normally this wouldn’t bother me too much because I beleive in getting the best education possible for my children. That’s why I became a blogger for today.com. I want to help parents navigate and learn that they can be excellent activists for their children.

A mom was frustrated over an incident at school and instead of getting feedback from one mom, the woman suggested she simply pull her child from the school and begin homeschooling. Simple enough comment right? Well… not really, to me anyway.

It wasn’t that simple of a statement in my opinion. As an activist to create better schools, I don’t feel that pulling your child out of school and beginning a whole different way of learning is the answer. Before I end up with hate mail, let me just say that I am not against homeschooling. I think that it can work very well if approached correctly. However, I think that parents need to weigh the reasons for homeschooling along with the pros and cons.

The ideal school setting would have children learning and growing in an environment that is supportive of their needs - but sometimes, even the well placed systems fail the children. That is why parents need to be the activists.

It is a personal belief of mine that YOU have the ability to change the way schools work. You have the ability to change policies and yes, sometimes we need to make a stink and be a pain to the administrations and districts but that is how they learn there is a problem. If everyone sat idly by and did nothing then school districts and the administrators would never know parents are concerned. We have the power to hold them accountable for operating a school that meets the needs of every student.

Now in the case of the mom who was frustrated, it was a playground issue. My advice to her would have been if the principal or teachers are uncooperative then yes, it is time to go above their heads (which I will be talking about more in the next few weeks). There are more solutions than taking your child out of school. I’m not saying that sometimes that isn’t necessary but if there is a chance that you can work it out, I say do it!