Posted on 09/30/2009 2:09:57 PM PDT by ElenaM
Despite the odds, I've been selected for the local middle school's "school improvement council." What approach to take?
After everyone finished howling the question became, “What are you going to do now?”
Should I try to pull a Hannah and go in undercover, so to speak? Or should I go in as the full-bore conservative I am? Odds are I’ll have only one shot at this so I have to make it good.
I still don’t have a firm grasp on exactly what influence this council has on anything, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to know more about what’s going on in there. As it stands, I have to quiz my kids every day to make sure they aren’t being exposed to the obscenities I see reported on Fox.
Any thoughts or advice would be very much appreciated.
Document whatever liberal idiocy comes down the pipe quite thoroughly and don't hesitate to speak up and call it what it is.
Briefcase sized thermonuclear device ...
Sorry, only thing i see working for Government Schools.. \
But then I see only the same answer for DC, too.
/sarc
Be yourself. Stay calm under fire and read “Arguing with Idiots”. You’ll need the ammo considering that you’ll likely be in a room full of idiots.
Cell phone video camera as a start. Keep a diary.
Keep quiet until you can survey the lay of the land. Check out whose else is on the board. Then pick your fights. Unless you have allies you will be treated as a crank.
**Be yourself. Stay calm under fire and read “Arguing with Idiots”. **
Or Coulter’s “How to Talk to a LIBERAL (if you MUST)
I also have to consider retaliation against my son. Yikes. That just hit me.
First, recognize that government choosing one particular school for kids is tyranny and you are not going change the real problem.
Second, choose your battles carefully.
Absolutely. This strikes me as a high-visibility political project at work.
“Guns ablaze” was probably a poor choice of words.
Go in as what you are. Be cordial, businesslike, and professional. Present your areguments; defend your stances; and push your ideas.
If you are percieved as a wild-eyed nut, so will your ideas. If you slip your ideas in undercover, they won’t have a veneer of legitimacy.
Are you in a liberal, or a conservative area?
You can bet dollars to donuts that the teachers and teacher’s union are liberal - but depending upon where you live, you may find yourself confortably among Conservative parents who got involved .... just like you.
Chose your friends carefully, your enemies will chose themselves.
Yes, perhaps it was an unfortunate phrase. ;-)
I’m starting to think it’s going to be an extension of my day job, only surrounded by people who think the exact opposite of the rest of the world.
Should be interesting.
Thanks!
If you think you’re going to have ANY affect on your kid’s education by being on a glorified committee, you’re kidding yourself.
Your head will splode before the two years is up.
Hope this helps.
Most people around here are conservative, but having dealt with some school administrators throughout the past 12 years I’m well aware that they are typical liberals—all emotion, no logic.
The lay of the land will likely drive a lot of the approach.
I would strongly suggest it be edited to remove the"guns ablaze"
There is nothing you can do. If you expose your conservativism the school will ostrasize your children. They will single them out and use the other children to ridicule them. It’s already too late. They don’t really want the input of the parents they are just using this as a way to show that they are working with the parents.
See: Delphi technique and facilitation.
Well the good news is that you asked what you should do here at FR.. you’re a conservative so keep to your principals and if you see anything coming at you or the kids from the far left lunatic fringe give us a holler... I’m sure you’d have a loyal following that could write to the school board etc.
My two cents.
Well, that may be true too.
I would take a slightly different tack. I have a strategic planning background and look for results. (1) What is a particular initiative trying to do? (2) How do we know if we did it? (3) What are the results?
Answer those questions about every initiative and it’s hard to argue with you.
The Alinsky Method
(http://www.learn-usa.com/transformation_process/roa018.htm). BTW, take a look at the links at the end of this one. Not all of them work, but it's a good road map to several of the radical Socialist groups that are/have been subverting public education in America for decades. You really have to learn how to “read the white space” with these folks, but it's all there in the their nuanced coda (”have’s”/”have not’s”) if you understand the Communist propensity for “language in depth”. The best way to understand (and thus defeat) the Socialists is to read their histories, and their bios. Their own writings will tell you everything you need to know about how they think.
Then you can either use their techniques yourself, or at least recognize and thwart their use on you.
I used the report abuse thing to ask the admin to remove that. I didn’t think it would cause a fuss here, but I was wrong.
I still don’t see an edit function to do it myself.
You sir are correct.
Thanks for the links! Bookmarking for this weekend.
I don’t think I could look myself in the mirror if I started thinking like them, but knowing the unspoken assumptions is always a good thing.
Chances are pretty high that the kids do not know, or care who's parents are on a board. So, I wouldn't worry about that at all. If he doesn't bring it up, chances are no one else will either. So, while it's nothing to be ashamed about, I would discourage him bragging about it. Why ask for problems.
Now, if a teacher wants to do something - well, that's where your fun starts. Just ask the teacher if they would like to make an appearance before the PTA to explain his actions. You will be happy to give him a microphone to explain his actions, and you will be more than happy to review his teaching contract - and have him dismissed. This is a position of authority - you are, for all intensive purposes - the boss's boss. The Superintendant is employed at the School Board's pleasure; the teachers work for the Superintendant. You have a nuke, he has a bow and arrow.
My wife was on the WA School Board. She had a teacher take action against her son on the sports team. After 1 warning, he got to make an appearance to the PTA - where he had to defend himself, and how he wouldn't do similar things to the other parent's kids. Apparently, other parents on the board took offence at his attitude, as he was dismissed mid-year. Don't mess with the parent's kids, when the parents are in charge of the livilihood of your boss. It's just not smart.
If there is retaliation against your son, get a lawyer - retire early. ;-).
FIRE can help, google them.
Sounds like what I do all day five days a week.
It’s definitely teachers and administrators who would retaliate. Been there, done that.
My son said the office people obviously didn’t recognize my name, but they sure will know me when I walk in!
That answers the question about undercover or overt.
BTW, this isn’t the school board. It’s called the “school improvement council.”
Sign up for Substitute Teaching and get in a mix of schools and learn the reality on the ground.
Can’t—I have a full time job. Besides, the first kid who called me a b*&ch would be backhanded and then I’d be in jail.
Baby-steps ... you may find that you like this. You will be in a position to affect changes, and if you find that you are actually improving things - maybe running for the School Board would be something you would enjoy, and you would be good at.
We NEED people like you running for office. Desperately!!! If it’s not your thing, that’s fine. But don’t count yourself out - you may be a part of a much larger plan, you just don’t know it yet.
Record EVERYTHING possible.
Then ask around and find some reliable adults who are substitute teaching who you can rely on, and ask them to have a Sunday afternoon sit down with you.
Also on such panels, there is often a preset agenda, a few are in on it, the rest are decorative ballast. Be bold, and insist on bold actions, moral and good.
Great idea—thanks!
Excellent point. When I was taking a business class the prof reviewed some book that gave instructions on how to undercut, betray, and otherwise work your way to the top. He panned it mercilessly, as did most of the class.
He then asked for a show of hands as to who would read the book. I was the only one, and drew gasps from some of the others.
The prof, to his credit, merely asked me why, in the face of such sleazy tactics. I told him I didn't plan on using them but thought it would be useful to identify those who did. There was some change-of-mind murmuring in the class and the prof calmed down but didn't say anything. Never did read the book as I opted out of management and became a contract-programmer instead.
Home school your kids.
LOL I wish I had ordered my life in such a way that I could. As it stands I have far too many student loans yet to pay.
Read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” - Undersand your enemies and turn the tables on them with their own tactics. Pay particular attention to his section on “compromise” The Left has used it to move the ball in their direction for decades.
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