Speak Up! Parents and Teachers Need to Advocate for Better Public Education.

The following is adapted from Can You Hear Me Now? by Suzanne Rupp DeMallie

Sure, parents and teachers might have different opinions on a lot of matters concerning a child’s education. Most, however, have one thing in common: the desire for a better public education.

Teachers, how many times have you felt powerless in your classroom? How many times have you sat through trainings and staff meetings being told that you have to use a curriculum that you know is not the most effective for your students; that you must adhere to pacing guidelines that aren’t realistic given the academic needs of your class?

How many times have you had to relinquish too many instructional days for standardized testing just to yield results that you already know; that you can’t remove a student from class who is repeatedly distracting and disrupting the learning environment for all of the other students in the room; and that you can’t give a child the help they really need and deserve because there are too few supports for too many struggling students?

Parents, do you ever wonder which educational opportunities and advantages your child is missing out on in public school? Perhaps as you hear about your neighbor’s child who attends private school — where the class size is half of your child’s, where they have opportunities for in-class and out-of-school experiences nonexistent in the public system and access to the greatest, most advanced technologies?

Do you think that a private school would offer services and accommodations that would better support your child’s individualized needs without the need for an IEP document? Do you ever wonder if your child might be happier in school or less anxious if they could attend a private school where they don’t have to observe other students cursing at their teachers or engaging in brutal physical fights? Do you even know what’s really going on in your child’s school?

Why your child won’t use the school bathroom. Why your child avoids eating in the cafeteria. Do you secretly choose not to know, or prefer to just assume the school is just as good as it was for you thirty years ago or the same as it was for your oldest child seven years ago? Do you wish that your income allowed you the choice to send your child to a private school?

Why don’t we speak up? What stops us from voicing our concerns to someone other than the teacher in the classroom next door or a friend at back-to-school night? Do you feel like, what’s the point? How will my one voice be heard? How will I make any difference in a large public system that seems doomed for failure? Do you worry that you’ll be seen as a troublemaker or jeopardize your job as a teacher?

It’s okay. You’re not alone. I know you’re not because I’ve had all of these same concerns — as a mom whose three children have only attended public schools, and as a teacher in the twenty-fifth largest school district in the country.

I have even more fears today knowing that I will be exposing the realities of our educational bureaucracy and questioning the status quo. I’ve seen the system and dealt with it from many sides, and I have felt that helplessness and hopelessness that you are feeling.

But together, we can make a difference. We cannot rely on politicians, who spend more time campaigning than sitting in a classroom and spout the same rhetoric in each election that they are really going to make a difference. It’s up to us, the adults who care for the children affected by poor educational decisions, to initiate change.

Together, we can make a difference so that every child has a “better choice” in our public education system. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or both, speak up now! Your voices need to be heard so that today’s children and future generations will get the education they deserve.

For more advice on speaking up for better public education, you can find Can You Hear Me Now? on Amazon.

Suzanne Rupp DeMallie taught for seven years in the Baltimore County Public School system. Research into her own son’s learning difficulties led her to author the Classroom Auditory Learning Issues resolution, adopted by the National PTA in July, 2007. Her work has appeared in Our Children Magazine, T.H.E. Journal, Towson Times, and The Baltimore Sun. She has presented at the National School Boards Association’s Annual Convention; to national, state, and local PTA groups; and to politicians. Suzanne was awarded the National PTA’s Life Achievement Award in May 2007, the highest honor from the nation’s largest child advocacy organization.