Tis the season for student conferences. With involved, engaged parents it's no wonder that the federal government wants to put the onus on student achievement on the teachers. For a while now I've thought about going back to grad school but I'm not sure what I would study. Educational policy sounds intriguing but I firmly believe that the next revolution in education will be at home.
Conference #1
Parent doesn't come.
Conference #2
Parent doesn't come but the special ed teacher gets a hold of them via phone. The parent says, "Uh-huh" the rest of the conference.
Conference #3
Parent doesn't come and when the special ed teacher calls to remind them of the scheduled meeting she says, "I never got a m______f_______ letter." The special ed teacher tries to hold a phone conference but our voices are too loud on speakerphone. When the special ed teacher picks up the line, she is reamed and told not to be a smart ass. The conference is rescheduled.
Conference #4
Parent and student fail to show up.
How can we improve student performance? Don't worry about increasing parent responsibility or student engagement. Fix teacher salaries to the test scores of their students. Now all teachers will want to teach the lower achieving students. Yeah! What else? Let's produce studies that reveal that the reason kids drop out is because they are bored. Right! Let's turn our teachers into performers. I remember being bored in Mr. Kill's biology class. Did I ever think of dropping out? No. Did I ever blame him when grades came around for my lack of interest in RNA and mitosis? No.
For once, let's blame the students, let's hold the parents responsible. No Child Left Behind? Good grief.
