schools vs. parents

[Robert Probasco <rcp@uidaho.edu>]

Thank you for the excellent editorial delineating the adversarial role
schools maintain over parents.  The article appeared in the Moscow/Pullman
Daily News on Wed., Sept. 16, 1998. 

The historical perspective you provide, citing how "reformers" in previous
centuries plotted to remove children from the home so proper
indoctrination could be bestowed by the anointed ones, is a common tale
in societies both sacred and secular.  I am thankful American schools do
not begin until age 5-6.

Of course, society will always have to deal with parents who don't care
much about any child's education, which is probably a major reason why the
current system has become calcified into its present state of paralysis. 

If I thought radical change were possible, I would advocate razing all our
brick warehouses and returning to the one-room schoolhouse.  At least the
parents would know who is responsible.  More importantly, each pupil would
have to learn to accept responsibility.  Many parents are striving to
participate in their children's education, but the impersonal atmosphere
of 300+ students per building creates a forbidding situation. 

However, since I fear the great majority of parents will continue to march
to the NEA's drummer, I am pushing our local bureaucrats to improve
communications within the community.  Unfortunately, such simple solutions
as community TV were successfully resisted for years, even though our
university faculty and students were offering free labor and equipment to
the district.  Currently, uses of email and the web seem to moving at a
glacial pace in our local schools, in terms of keeping parents appraised
of what is happening.  Even the local churches are ahead of our impotent
school district, when it comes to using electronic communications.

The social promotion policies have made a sham of effective school
policies, but this "solution" is merely a reaction to unrealistic goals
legislated by special interest groups, which have gained the upper hand
against cowering ciphers.  Well, we get what we pay for, and since the
Women's Lib movement has diverted the flow of strong and capable women out
of the classroom, our bedrock institution of public school has rotted. 

I do see some signs of improvement in our local schools, but will it be
too-little-too-late?  Should we still regard our malfunctioning education
miasma as comparable to an act of war?

Idaho has just implemented some charter schools, which may be the lever
needed to force "public" schools to evaluate and revise their appalling
practices.  I, too, have a dream....

It is a pleasure to see David Guterson quoted.  Another useful source is
Philip K. Howard's _The Death of Common Sense_, which expands on America's
inane legislation, as it has affected public schooling.  

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Robert Probasco                      rcp@uidaho.edu
Computer Science Dept.         office  208-885-7076
University of Idaho               fax  208-885-9052
Moscow, ID 83844-1010    http://www.uidaho.edu/~rcp