Marketing Education
Several years ago, our district stopped referring to “parents” and “community members” by these monikers. We now refer to them as “customers” (as in “the customer is always right”). We are acutely conscious of the fact that we must market ourselves in order to compete, since Colorado has open enrolment and kids may attend any school they wish, provided there is room. The idea was that schools would have to provide higher quality education to attract “customers.”
There’s just one problem. Many, many customers do not actually want a better education for their children. They SAY they do, but what they really want is a transcript full of advanced placement classes in which their children have B’s or higher—whether the curriculum is actually advanced or their children have earned the grades not withstanding.
The bad, bad evil person in me (the one who was reading John’s post) was glad to hear that private schools must also deal with parents who lie or are irresponsible about excusing their children from school. Holy smokes, if I had a dime for every mommy who called her kid in sick for my class period alone because the student was missing an assignment. Oy. And don’t get me started about kids with MASSIVE excused absences. I have a girl who recently missed ten days in a row, after having chalked up ten or so days prior to these. I commented on the fact that she looked quite hale and healthy to me. Oh, for two days she was sick. The rest was a vacation.
Next year we are thinking about starting a new program in which children are rewarded for coming to class and generally behaving themselves. They get entered into drawings for prizes (trinkets, you know, like iPods). Call me crazy, but I thought an education was its own reward. Why are we stooping to this level? No one has bothered to raise a number of our students. No one has taught them to behave respectfully. No one has bothered to instill a work ethic. We’re frantically trying to make up for the job parents should have done with these folks between the ages of one and five.
So here’s my latest quick-and-dirty cure-all. Parents need to stop asking themselves whether or not they are raising children who are happy and start asking whether they are raising children they’d be willing to employ.
We used to get many of that type in the military but one of the nice things
about training people in the military is you don't have to deal with their
parents.
I was pretty used to having young men who had never done their
laundry in their lives and were used to lipping off at their teachers or
parents without any consequences. A couple of tours of KP and company
punishment soon straightened them out.
Is it me or does it seem to be a worse problem now than it used to be when
we were kids. My parents were so uninvolved with my scholastic endeavors
that when I saw how parents of my children's peers behaved it took me
totally by surprise. What has happened to cause this?
As a former employer, it wasn't uncommon to sift through 25 sloppy,
incomplete applications only to find five candidates suitable for an
interview. When you thought you had a decent person for the position, they
eventually did something irresponsible and lost their job. Then you would
get the phone call from mommy wanting to know why their "precious angel"
was being picked on.
Parents can be such parents sometimes :) Parents just dont understand.....
I like your idea about parents raising children they'd be willing to
employ. Turns out my mom raised a kid her sister was willing to employ (I
work with my aunt and mom in the summer and on other school breaks). I know
my parents and aunt are all very proud of me, which makes me feel good
about myself and the job my parents did.
Amy, I have the feeling that every one of your teachers would agree that
there's no problem with your work ethic. Aren't you shocked at what some
of your peers get away with, though?
Oh my gosh, it's awful! I don't know why kids don't get it- they're
assigned detention, have their electronics taken away, get embarassed in
front of the whole class, and nothing works! Sometimes the teachers just
give up, and sometimes they don't even have rules for running a classroom.
For example, my government teacher lets kids listen to their iPods while
she's teaching (the rule is that you can only have one earbud in). I refuse
to take advantage of that little privilege because I know I would get
distracted, but it's amazing what kids will do in class to avoid working.
I am biting my tongue so hard right now (or sitting on my hands or
something). iPods while she teaches??????
Yep, iPods while she teaches! It's SO irritating to have kids listening to
music during a lesson, even for the students! Because the music listeners
rarely catch anything the first (or second, or third) time it's said, we
end up going over the same notes/lecture/lesson about four or five times
before we're allowed to turn it in and move on. I can't stand it,
personally. Also, your wonderful son is in this class with me, so he can
also elaborate on all the wonderful things that go on during class. *eye
roll*
Paula, you go.