Rambling: Meeting with a Mother

I'm sitting at Panera, fresh from a job interview.  I saw a posting on a local website from a mother who is looking for a tutor for her 2 boys for two months in August.  They will be in 1st and 4th grade.  I was excited about the possibility and curious to see if they were behind in class and their mother wanted to remediate them a bit, or if she simply wanted them to get a head start heading back into a school year.

It turns out that she has actually hired a full-time tutor for ALL summer, who simply can't cover those two weeks in August.  Her boys are successful in school and in fact, bored because they are not challenged.  They also attend Kumon (private tutoring company) regularly during the school year AND over the summer.  Whew!  A far cry from being behind and wanting to spend a couple weeks catching up.

It got me thinking about the effects of how parents intervene in their childrens' schooling.  These parents clearly have high expectations for their childrens' education and when it wasn't going as well as possible (aka, not being challenged), they did something about it.  They make it such a high priority that they're willing to post a job ad, interview, hire, and pay someone for those 2 weeks, rather than simply take 8 days off of learning.  That is dedication.

I wonder what inner-city education would be like if private tutors were a common feature of family life.  I was reminded of the book Home Advantage, which details how families' socioeconomic standings affect their ability to navigate (and fund) the education system.  I was also reminded of a conversation with a Peruvian friend who is concerned that American education isn't as rigorous as countries abroad.

Basically, today was an interesting window into how culture, standing, expectations, and perceptions of the parents' role all affect student achievement.

Words: Parents' Frustration

I had dinner with family friends this week and the conversation turned to education.  Their daughter is 11 and the parents are very involved in her schooling.  It was really interesting to me to hear a mother's perspective on 'hot topics' right now.  She voiced:

- Frustration with having extra studying specifically for standardized tests... shouldn't they be learning what's on the test in their regular curriculum??
- Concern for which high school her daughter will attend.  Due to a lack of limited 'good' high schools in Chicago Public Schools, they're already looking into private schools.  Also, isn't it unfair how they don't allot more spaces to their district for the selective enrollment schools?
- Frustration with how teacher tenure works - there is a teacher at their school that everyone knows is not a good teacher.  He doesn't assign homework, doesn't grade, and the parents who have a child in his class even feel pressure to teach them things at home that they're not learning at school! Why should this teacher get to keep teaching when he's ineffective?
- Lower standards and less pride in work than when she went to school.  For example, her daughter's friends will turn in work with poor handwriting, incorrect capitalization, or dirty food, and when asked, respond "my teacher doesn't care."
- Doubt that they're learning as much as they should be.  She mentioned all the studying she had to do early in her schooling in Peru, a visiting child from China who called her year in U.S. schools a 'vacation,' and being unsatisfied with the fact that so many teachers shy away from 'memorization.'
- Finally, uncertainty as to where the blame belongs.  Is it the teachers? Administration? School district? Society?  Isn't this the golden question. 

Wow.  That's quite a list of things to be concerned about as a parent.  It's a reminder that all the issues that schools and districts are dealing with do affect parents daily lives in a very real way.  I feel like their voice is the least heard, they are looped in the least about how and why things work, and it shouldn't be that way.    

 

Words: I Love It Here

Me: So, have you lived in this area your whole life?
A favorite involved parent: Yes, I have.  I grew up in a house just down the street.  I love it here.

A healthy reminder that success doesn't always mean getting out of the neighborhood as soon as possible.

Captured: Math in the Caf

Math games, budget and gpa info, resources for summer jobs, and cookies :-)