"read the book "Class Warfare""
I'd rather hear your experiences on the local school board, participation in precinct meetings, your election as a delegate to political conventions and other activist activities.
I see your handle is well-justified :)
As a single parent with an absentee ex-husband, I spend the time I would have had to devote to being a community, state and federal activist (with no guarantee of success) instead to my dd. No, I didn't do any of those things you mention. At best, because it is all political, every success can be counteracted at the next election.
What I can tell you is that for 6 long years I worked within the schools with teachers and administrators to get curriculum changed, get rid of ignorant, incompetent and abusive teachers, and promote a common sense view of a normal child. I was labeled an interfering, obstructionist, overprotective, amateur who could not possible know anything about educating a child because I didn't have a degree in school administration, a teaching certificate, more certificates in curriculum design etc etc.
My results: precisely 0. The teacher who verbally abused my child in front of the class and the entire school, repeatedly, is still there, still promoting groupthink and still allowed to give children who "voted" for George Bush over Al Gore in the "mock election" at school failing grades.
The curriculum director who promotes whole language and deliberately excludes phonics is still pushing the same curriculum.
The administrators who say they cannot change the curriculum, teachers, or control bullying are still there.
Any more bright ideas ?
Parents only have 12 years of their child's school life - the blob has carried on its inexorable way for far longer than that.
I chose to leave the mess, give my dd the opportunities she did not get in school, and end up with a thinking, kind, achievement oriented child, all traits that were being beaten out of her at school.
Someone once said that reading a book is like crawling into someone else's head and understanding their experiences. If Marty Rochester, a noted professor of political science at a state university and the parent of 2 boys in the local public schools, whose wife worked as a teacher in the special education unit of the public schools, could not get any satisfaction, well then...
Why keep beating your head against the wall ? Because it feels so good when you stop.
I highly recommend books as an addition to your experiential education.