Why am I doing this?

From the start, when my child entered the public school system, I wanted to have full knowledge of what she was learning and ensure that she was doing the work that the teacher deemed necessary to develop a thorough understanding of the material. 

If the teacher assigned homework, my child had damn well better do it.  If the teacher assigned a project, same thing. 

School was fun and exciting.  She came home each day with many new things to share with us.

Then we hit a rough patch, grades started slipping, the parent portal would show a homework assignment that hadn't been turned in 2 weeks ago.
 
One summer, I discovered the school websites with pages for each class' assignments.  I made a plan.  Next year was going to be different.  I would check this thing (the class page) every week, every day if I had to, and there would be no more missed homework.  Before she could go play with a friend, I would need to SEE the completed homework that had been assigned by the teacher.

The school year started great.  Information was posted. My plan was working,  I went to the Open House and thanked each teacher for keeping us informed this way.

Sadly, it didn't last long.  When I asked for the resources to be kept up to date, the teachers, guidance counselors and principals all pointed me to the wonderful Agenda Planners that each child now had.

Agenda Planners ARE wonderful IF the child actually writes the homework assignment in the darn thing....copied correctly...completely.....legibly....AND remembers to bring it home.

How am I to enforce the teachers requirements for her class if I don't know what they are?

Imagine the citizens of Marion County hiring a traffic cop and sending him out there without giving him any knowledge of the speed limits and traffic laws we have.

Imagine further if when he pulls a car over, the driver is able to whip out his handy Agenda Planner and say "See here, Officer?  I AM supposed to go 75 miles per hour in this residential zone. I know, because I wrote it down."

Silly, huh? 

That's kind of what it felt like to me. 

I became frustrated, and then curious.   I looked at the class pages for other teachers and found it wasn't just my child's teachers. The link to the school newsletter hadn't even been updated for months.

I looked at the rival schools in the district and discovered the same thing.  It's systemic.  

Am I the only parent who cares whether their child  does the work required to get good grades?  I refuse to believe that. I know from talking to many of them, I am not.

Am I the only parent that ever spoke up and asked for the resources that already exist, to be used?

I have been told that I am. 

Privately others have mentioned fear of retribution toward their children.  "Just be quiet and go with the flow.  Do the best you can." it has been said to me.




But...but...these schools are making a big deal about parental involvement, I thought to myself.
THEY say it's important to them.  WHY, then, should we be quiet?  I WANT to be involved in my child's education.   I WANT what they are saying THEY want.

 I repeat : How am I to enforce the teachers requirements for her class if I don't know what they are?


And that is why I am doing this.  Because as hard as it is for me to believe, it is system wide and so I feel I am going to have to address the system.