Private and Charter Schools

One of the biggest and most serious issues we in the public school system face is apathy. The fact of the matter is that parents who are proactive enough to, take the time and trouble to, find a Charter school and enroll their children are the parents whose children do well in public school. Every time I read about a charter or private school the most distinguishing feature is it has parents who care. One of the biggest problems we in the public school system face is absent parents. I have had children in my class who have been with me for almost 2 years and when the parents write it is addressed to “To Whom it May Concern”. Most normal parents would be horrified to think that their child has a teacher whose name they do not know. This is an ongoing problem for the classroom teacher, many of our children are totally disinterested in school and their parents do little to encourage them.

I was reading an article recently that said that the greatest predictor of student achievement was parental involvement. If I were to tell you that you could improve your child’s chances of success in school by investing 10 minutes a night, 6 nights a week, reading to your child, what would you do? If you are reading this blog, chances are that your answer would be that you would most certainly invest 60 minutes a week in your child’s future. Alas, too many of the parents we deal with either cannot or will not do even this small amount to help their child.

One of the requirements of private or charter schools is that parents participate in the life of the school. This accomplishes two things, it creates an opportunity for parents to see their children during the school day and perhaps more importantly allows the children to see their parents at school. Mom and Dad at school have an enormous effect on all children’s behavior. Now if this were done in public school, the public schools would share in the benefit of parental involvement.

Another issue is uniforms, most private school students wear uniforms. Why do you think this is an almost universally accepted norm for most private schools? Well research shows that children behave better when in uniform. Children who wear uniforms also get better grades. When this was attempted in my district the superintendent of schools thundered that all children in the district would be in uniform the next school year. Unless, of course, they opted out and decided not to wear a uniform. The next thing was each school could pick uniforms based on that schools “colors”. So the uniforms were, (Dare I say it?) no longer uniform. Now, when you are dealing with a mobile population that might change schools 3 times a year this is not going to sit well with them. It didn’t, and if I may paraphrase the community response: “In order to continue to express his individuality, my child will not conform his dress to any standard unless motivated by his peers or what he may see on television.” The idea of uniforms lasted about one half of one school year and then it quietly faded away to be replaced with the next “Hey! Have we got a swell idea for you!” taxpayer money spending waste of time.

So once again the very change that may have helped the neediest students was driven into the ground by spineless bureaucrats.