My kid and I went shopping yesterday. We saw the school supplies aisle, which is usually hopping this time of the year … but it was empty.
I wondered aloud how many people were buying school supplies. To be honest, it’s the furthest thing from my mind. And to be even more honest, after being burned by the supply list with two binders that cost nearly $10 each last year, only to be told at the end of the first week that the teacher had changed their mind, well, let’s just say that I’m usually the parent digging through the scraps in the school supply aisle at the beginning of week two.
But I digress.
One of the biggest pushbacks I’m hearing is that teachers don’t want to go back to the classroom just so the economy can begin to heal. I’ve been told numerous times that teachers are not babysitters and are underappreciated, and I become frustrated because it’s made to seem as if parents are the ones setting up this system, and that can’t be any further from the truth.
Parents need to work.
I think about the people I personally know who are making the decisions about school. Married. Upper-middle class. Two-income families. College educated. And then I wonder how someone whose life is so vastly different than mine is qualified to make these decisions for my kids: One parent. Lower middle-class. One-income family. College educated but not in education.
The J-O-B
I mean, we’re not talking about scheduling issues with sports practice here. We’re talking about how the hell I’m supposed to work while making sure that my kids are either in school or at home doing school. And where will I go to have questions answered? I tried to track down a missing report card weeks ago and was told that no one was there who could help, so who do I talk to about my concerns with school?
I’ve heard a lot about how educators feel underappreciated and then hear them say something like, “We’re not a daycare.” I agree, they’re not daycares because childcare centers here in West Virginia are heavily loaded with families receiving Title 20 funds, which require the parent to be working or going to school to qualify. While public ed is saying, “No, we won’t open solely because parents are going back to work,” childcare centers are saying, “We are forced to be open because our parents have to go to work.”
And for an educator at any level to not acknowledge the importance of early brain development and socialization … well, perhaps more support and appreciation should be given to those people working in the childcare centers, usually for poverty wages.
The education system is full of hypocrisy. A few years ago, I was asked if my kids’ elementary school had after-care, which it didn’t. When a call was made to point that out, the person was told that “there wasn’t one there because those parents don’t work.”
“Those parents” meant the poor parents in my neighborhood. Now, I don’t know who said it first, but I know without a doubt that it was said. And not only that, it was repeated, bias and all. But now “those” same parents are made to feel as if they’re wrong for needing schools to open because they have to work, and they’re talked to/about by the same people who are usually saying that they don’t work!
New Survey?
Parents need to start talking to school boards in a real way about the needs of their children. I’ve read that parents have been talked to about these plans, but I don’t know a parent who has mentioned it. And to think that the people who don’t feel as if poor parents need after-care because they don’t work are the same people making the decisions now as to what will be best for thousands of kids in this county? Well …
The education system is being used as an excuse for the economy to open back up. I’m sure that somewhere there’s a risk of losing funding for school systems, but how can we rely on a system that isn’t inclusive in its decision making? A multiple-choice survey was a quick way to trick the community into feeling as if their input was sought after and important, but now that the start date for schools has been pushed back due to a COVID-19 spike, wouldn’t it make sense to seek parents’ input again?
Parents need to realize that we’re far more important to the public education system than just a vote on a levy ballot. It’s our right to demand equity, inclusion, and transparency when it comes to decisions that affect our kids. Parents need to get schooled on their rights.
Onward,
Amy Jo
