Passionate for Public Schools

An article landed in my news feed one morning earlier this Spring: "I Was a Voucher School Parent".  If you know me, you know that I am passionate about public schools, so I immediately wanted to get to the bottom of the writer's little three-letter "was".  What caused her to put the voucher school behind her?

Here's the definition of the type of school her daughter attended: voucher school: "a private school that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize tuition without the oversight and accountability of public schools".  Granted, some might say that the phrase "without the oversight and accountability" suggests that  oversight and accountability are  good things, and that if a school operates without these things it's not good.  I happen to think that oversight and accountability (in many ways, thought not all) are good things.  Too much oversight belies a lack of trust and can be stifling, but everyone should be accountable in appropriate ways.

The graphic above shows what I think about vouchers.  

When states give vouchers to families so that their children can attend private schools, they take money away from public schools - the very schools that are charged with providing each and every  student with "FAPE", a free and appropriate public education.  All students are entitled to FAPE - typical students, special needs students, gifted students, nice students, naughty students, poor students, privileged students - ALL students.  

Many people do not know that when states give vouchers to students so that they can attend private schools, those private schools are not charged with providing education to "all" students.  They don't accept all students; that is why they are private.  Most private schools are not equipped or staffed to serve the needs of special needs students or English language learners and therefore, they do not take these students and are not by law required to take them.

Many people do also not know that when states give vouchers to students so that they can attend private schools, those private schools are not required to administer state-mandated standardized tests.  While I do not support using standardized test scores to measure  teacher effectiveness, the tests do provide some measure of student learning, albeit a snapshot.  

I am a public school teacher, and I believe in the notion of a social contract that ensures education for all children.  That contract includes funding public schools from the taxes that everyone pays.  I also believe that people are free to enroll their children in private schools, but when they do so, they are responsible for paying the private school tuition over and above the taxes they pay that go for public education.

Public schools educate ALL children, and as citizens of this country, we should work hard to ensure that they are funded at levels that will make this possible.

No one, especially teachers who love children and hold their profession close to their hearts, wants to hear stories about "failing" public schools.  But when funds for these public schools are taken from the school and given to families so they can enroll their children in a private school, there is no guarantee that the private school will provide the education they are looking for, and students in the public school are hurt.  The best thing to do is to adequately fund public schools.

 

Go Outside and PLAY!

I was driving down the street on my way home tonight and I paused to watch some neighborhood kids as they were playing a game.  They were running and shouting, making quite a ruckus, and it was AWESOME!

The article "Why Free Play is the Best Summer School" challenges adults to give children the freedom to play.  

Consider this quote: "Unscheduled, unsupervised, playtime is one of the most valuable educational opportunities we give our children. It is fertile ground; the place where children strengthen social bonds, build emotional maturity, develop cognitive skills, and shore up their physical health."

Do you know kids in your neighborhood that have unscheduled, unsupervised playtime?

When I was a kid I couldn't wait until summer because we had free time every day.  My mom and grandma used to tell us to go outside and play, and we did!

We rode our bikes and raided the clothespin bag and stuck playing cards in the spokes to pretend that they were motorcycles.  We ran screaming "Red Alert" through the backyard chased by an imaginary rabid dog all the way to the swingset and climbed up to the top.  We climbed trees and made forts.  

We played outside in the dark with flashlights.  We had fashion shows with dress up clothes, acted in plays with scripts we improvised and lip-synched to our favorite groups on LPs.  We baked cookies and made our own lunches.  We decided what we wanted to do and we did it.

 When the weather was bad we watched reruns on TV or daytime dramas ("stories" as my grandma called them).  Even then we made up our own game - the "Commercial Game" where we competed to see who could call out the name of the advertised product before they said it or displayed the name.

I worry about today's generation of kids who are missing out on unstructured play time because they are scheduled within an inch of their lives.  Play dates carefully monitored with plenty of hand sanitizer to pass around, store-bought individual snacks, and parents stepping in to ensure that toys are shared and turns are taken seem to be the norm.

Are we doing a disservice to children when we set up their summer schedules and supervise their every movement?  I think so.  Classrooms are filled with students who have trouble monitoring their own behavior, with students who have trouble prioritizing and problem-solving, who can't handle small setbacks and disappointments because their parents - no doubt with good intentions -  have sheltered them from having to do this for themselves.  It's only natural that we don't want our children to get hurt or be disappointed, but I think we serve them better when we give them the space they need to exercise their creativity and let them be in charge of themselves.

This summer, let's tell kids to go outside and play!