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Copies of testimony by two PURE Reform steering committee members at this months PPS Public Hearing can be found on the Announcements page- go to the announcement for the November 17, 2008 Public Hearing and click on PURE Reform Report.
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I just read Kathy and Annette's testimonies at the Board hearing after being directed from this site. The issues of parental involvement and responsibility particularly resonate with me and have since I started volunteering 11 or 12 years ago. Actually, it has been a concern even further back to the 1970's when I taught in one of the poorest schools in our state. All of my kids were low income/free lunch but you could easily pick out the kids whose parents valued education and made an effort to help their kids.
It is good to hear from someone with this type of experience. Does it seem like there are particular steps schools can take to reach out to those parents that do not emphasize the value of education and work to help their kids?
I have no scientific data, just opinions, which I am always happy to share. Most people like to do things that they are good at doing and they tend to do things where there is a clear connection between the work and the reward. So the most involved parents are the ones that had positive experiences themselves in school. If a parent's memories of school were memories of being yelled at or humiliated for not knowing an answer, that parent needs to have the bad memories replaced by something positive. Start with pre-school and kindergarten. Have a relaxed social event and offer one or two concrete examples of how to interact in a positive way with the child. Make the experience pleasant for the parent.
Sounds like good advice! We will eventually go back to a future hearing with expanded suggestions. To take advantage of the suggestions though there will need to be a mindset that this is a team effort and that parents are not easily replaced by institutions.
NOTE: PURE reform wants to acknowledge that the a portion of testimony given at the November 17th public BOE meeting (posted on our www.purereform.com, announcements tab) was incorrect in asserting that the district did not notify us as that a some of our questions had been answered in that forum. On November 18th, PURE Reform discovered an email sent earlier by the district that directed us to the FAQ section on the district's website.
Thanks to all the folks who testify at the public hearings. I spoke once and it was the most unfullfilling three minutes of my life. Not getting any immediate feedback moved me in other directions.
One thing we hope to do is post testimony from the public on our meeting reports and follow up on the most important issues- so maybe the experience can become more meaningful.
10 comments:
I just read Kathy and Annette's testimonies at the Board hearing after being directed from this site. The issues of parental involvement and responsibility particularly resonate with me and have since I started volunteering 11 or 12 years ago. Actually, it has been a concern even further back to the 1970's when I taught in one of the poorest schools in our state. All of my kids were low income/free lunch but you could easily pick out the kids whose parents valued education and made an effort to help their kids.
It is good to hear from someone with this type of experience. Does it seem like there are particular steps schools can take to reach out to those parents that do not emphasize the value of education and work to help their kids?
I don't think that the public hearing announcement is still up, or I am having trouble finding it.
Under announcements, past events, click on Pure Reform Report
I have no scientific data, just opinions, which I am always happy to share. Most people like to do things that they are good at doing and they tend to do things where there is a clear connection between the work and the reward. So the most involved parents are the ones that had positive experiences themselves in school. If a parent's memories of school were memories of being yelled at or humiliated for not knowing an answer, that parent needs to have the bad memories replaced by something positive.
Start with pre-school and kindergarten. Have a relaxed social event and offer one or two concrete examples of how to interact in a positive way with the child. Make the experience pleasant for the parent.
Sounds like good advice! We will eventually go back to a future hearing with expanded suggestions. To take advantage of the suggestions though there will need to be a mindset that this is a team effort and that parents are not easily replaced by institutions.
To clarify where to find Announcements- this is a tab on www.purereform.com, not on www.purereform.blogspot.com.
NOTE: PURE reform wants to acknowledge that the a portion of testimony given at the November 17th public BOE meeting (posted on our www.purereform.com, announcements tab) was incorrect in asserting that the district did not notify us as that a some of our questions had been answered in that forum. On November 18th, PURE Reform discovered an email sent earlier by the district that directed us to the FAQ section on the district's website.
Thanks to all the folks who testify at the public hearings. I spoke once and it was the most unfullfilling three minutes of my life. Not getting any immediate feedback moved me in other directions.
One thing we hope to do is post testimony from the public on our meeting reports and follow up on the most important issues- so maybe the experience can become more meaningful.
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