Dr. Laura,
As an administrator at a small charter school, I am constantly amazed at the liberal mindedness of our educators and parents. At a school where high standards have been in place for 4 years that resulted in making AYP each year, a waiting list of 400 students, making an A+ on the state report card and having the highest test scores in the state, our new Director believes rules regarding dress code, discipline, being to school on time and prepared, gum chewing, hats in class and leniency should not be enforced. He and many like him believe high test scores, motivated and well-behaved students are not a result of consistent policies and procedures but pure luck. He believes "children should want to come to school and enforcing rules is not motivating."
New parents to our school disregard school start times and end times, homework and class work expectations and want their children to be given every opportunity to redo work, turn it in late and demand apologies when their children's' feelings are hurt. I am talking about 6-12 graders! I am sorry, but the world has rules, people need to be to work on time and children need to be able to make decisions and suffer consequences for those decisions. Parents need to stop running interference for their children.
I can't help but compare our Director and governing council to our current politicians who don't enforce policies and procedures that are already in place, condemn those who do try to enforce those rules and pick and choose which rules to enforce depending on the individual circumstance. The actions of our politicians and business leaders have plummeted downstream to our young people, our educators and our local decision makers. We are becoming a society of "do only what is required" and "go along to get along." When I question authority, speak out against injustice and defend my practices, I am considered adversarial, argumentative and frankly, a bitch by many. I just hope there are many like me who choose to stand firm in their beliefs and maintain a strong moral compass during these times of degradation.
Thank you for being a voice of reason each day.
M.
