Jacqueline’s Blog

There were so many thoughts that I had as I read this chapter.  I think this is where deficit thinking can be the greatest. I remember when I first started teaching, understanding that I needed to be flexible to involve parents in the school environment.  I remember hearing that I may need to conduct phone conferences over a parent’s lunch break and such.  However, lately, I believe that some teachers are beginning to expect that the parents work within a teacher’s schedule.  There are times when I think that even some of my colleagues have difficulty with involvement due to the school schedule.  So, why shouldn’t we be more flexible?

      One of the ideas that I wanted to respond about was providing transportation for parental involvement.  Could we send out a bus before meetings or activities to increase participation.  I think this is a good idea.  However, I am wondering what the administration at the county level would say with gas prices so high? I am afraid that deficit thinking would take over and they would find a way to cost those transportation costs.  I wonder how some of the schools pay for this expense?

      The other idea found in this chapter is parents who are too involved.  They talk about how parents in middle- and upper-socio economic areas throw their economic power behind the decisions that the schools make.  They even talked about administrations being fired due to parental involvement.  I can’t wait to talk to the Tritt family about this.  I can’t identify with this idea and haven’t seen a parent that enraged.  I wonder if anyone from Tritt has.  Their perspective on this would be interesting.

     The last idea that I wanted to talk about is full-service schools. At our school, we have a dentist come a couple of times a year.  I would love for that program to be expanded.  We seem to fuss with parents at the beginning of the year over vaccinations and then later due to eye- and hearing exams.  If we had a health clinic at school, these students could receive thes services at school.  I know we have a school nurse, but she is busy with the increasing number of diabetic children.  She spends about 1/3 of each school  day working with these children.  This prevents students that may need to see the nurse from getting assistance.  I do think that if children were able to see a health professional about headaches, fever, or vomiting, we could prevent some of the viruses that can run rampant in our school.  But, again, I go back to cost.  How would we pay for it?

 One last thing that the chapter talked about on page 391 was a parent’s right to challenge the system.  The book talks about how we as a school community don’t teach our parents how to effectively challenge the system.  I know every school is required to give a copy of the parents rights for special education.  But, I wondered how schools could encourage this challenging idea.  Could we have paper work available at the local library?  And then I thought, you have got to be kidding me!  I know if you researched it a little, probably with the help of a librarian, there are already books and articles that talk about this very thing.  I don’t believe the book’s assertion that parents don’t know how to challenge the system.  I think if a parent is motivated enough, they should be able to find information that would help them…That’s enough for my rambling thoughts.  See you in class! 

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