Parental Obligations
My Father…
As an adult, I can’t say I got along well with my father. That was my fault, and his desire for me to be independent. I can say that I admired my father and can safely say I knew what he gave me was much more than I could ever repay.
Health and Well being.
I have a noticeable curvature of the spine. With adulthood I’ve been able to accept that my back is just part of me. It doesn’t define who I am. It just is. Because of this acceptance I don’t recall ever missing a day of work because of my back.
Dad takes credit for that. When I was young I loved games and sports. I wanted to play everything. Mom and Dad had a conversation about whether I should be allowed to play. According to Mom, Dad proposed they let me play. His reasoning was that if I wanted to do it I would anyway and if they were there they could see the result.
Growing up I played baseball, basketball a 5ft point guard and participated in gym classes. I had a wonderful childhood.
Dad as an advocate.
He was also my high school principal. After he retired he once told me he only got involved with his children’s teachers twice. Both were on my behalf.
The first occurred around 4th or 5th grade. We were preparing for a volley ball game with an opposing school. Prior to the practice, I asked for permission to take of the back brace I wore. The teacher in no uncertain terms denied permission.
That evening I went home and described the incident to my mother. The next morning upon arriving at school. The first thing the teacher told me was that I could take of the brace any time I wanted.
Dad had intervened on my behalf.
Grade Placement in Junior High School.
I was a good but not great student. My math skills were great, but my verbal skills were substandard. I was given a potential non college preparatory class schedule.
Because of my back, my father felt this was making a decision which would hurt my future well being. He asked if something could be done.
The next day I was placed in a remedial reading testing. What they found was that while I was not good with definitions, I had a firm grasp of meaning. It was decided to allow me to change to a more advance class schedule, and attend remedial activities.
Dad was always my advocate.
Dad on Obligations.
In high school, my relationship with my father began to change. He became more a counselor than an advocate.
Mrs. Henault…
She was my French teacher. I had issues with English, I struggled with French. I worked hard, but often did not succeed.
Mrs. Henault was my French teacher and one of the few people in the world who truly scared me. She was tall and wore spiked high heels. Standing in front of the class, she would look down her nose and call on Monsieur Nobody and any answer I might have would be shot out of the back of my head.
Dad knew I had a problem with Mrs. Henault. Most mornings he was also my ride to school. One morning he asked me about Mrs. Henault? I told him the truth, that she scared me.
His response was… “We try to have different personalities for our teachers, so our students can learn to deal with it…” That was the last time we talked about Mrs. Henault.
I wanted to get into advanced Math.
My desire was to drop French and take Algebra II and Geometry as a sophomore. Dad and I discussed it. He suggested firmly that I take a another year of French first and then take Algebra II and Trigonometry and Analytical Geometry as a Junior.
Dad became an advisor in High School.
Today’s World.
There has been a lot of discussion about parental rights recently. The conservative politicians are advocating that parents know best and should dominate the parent teacher dynamic.
I disagree.
We all know there are good parents. We also know there are good teachers.
The Teacher Parent Dynamic Needs to be Balanced.
Every parent has a right to advocate for their child. They do not have the right to infringe on the rights of other children.
Dad would never directly question a teacher in front of me. In fact, if he found a teacher giving me favoritism, he would be disturbed. He wanted teachers to push his children and for that matter all students.
Teacher Student Parent Relationship
There are very few instances where a parent should get between a teacher and student. In most cases when a teacher and student have a disagreement, the job of the parent should be to support the teacher.
We talk about a breakdown in family and community. When I was young, all the families in our neighborhood knew each other. If a child misbehaved, the parents talked and presented a unified answer to the children.
Today, some parents are not fully engaged with raising their children. It appears that they define parental advocacy as taking their child’s side in everything. That is not being a good parent or being an adult. It is the easy way out and it usually doesn’t benefit the child.
Stop WOKE Laws.
This is what is wrong with the stop WOKE laws. It empowers the parent over the teacher. In the classroom that should not be the case. Teachers and the school administration should be in charge of the classroom.
A parent has a right and an obligation to advocate for their students. But that right ends when the student enters the front door of the school. Curriculum must remain with the educators overseen by the school board. When curriculum is dictated through parent rights, we now have an unbalanced situation.
Yes, the state has an obligation, but to limit discussion in the classroom, stifles true development of the mind. The stop WOKE acts make our schools propaganda machines. Far from improving democracy, they move us toward a fascist state.
As Children Grow…
Yes, in the low elementary grades. There should be a strict curriculum. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic provide a platform. But once that platform is built, students now have the basis to explore and learn based on needs and desires. The emphasis of the education should be on encouraging that exploration.
What bothers me most about the stop WOKE acts in Florida, is these practices are being encouraged in High Schools and Colleges. Conservative students are rewarded without being challenged. They are just right.
Is this country a democracy. Our founding fathers chose the right of free speech as the 1st Amendment.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."I believe this is a more important part of a free society then the 2nd amendment.
The Stop WOKE Acts..
Use parental rights, to restrict a teacher’s right of free speech. They restrict discussion of alternative ideas in the classroom. If the ideas of the parents are so right, why can’t the parents, at the dinner table properly set the students sense of morality…
My answer to this question, is that many conservative ideas are not right in a true democracy. And in open debate, many of the ideas do not stand up to scrutiny.
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