Quote:
|
Waiting for Richard's "Teachers wouldn't do that reply".
|
Teachers
shouldn't do that - I'd fire any teacher I found doing that to a student or a class - and have.
We always allow an 'alternative assignment' for such activities w/o any sort of reprecussion. For example, there are parents who will not allow their high school students to view
Schindler's List when studying WW2 - so we allow them to use the National Holocaust Museum's web-site to study the subject and present a short overview to their classes on the resources they found to be offered there. For the POTUS speech, a short reflective paper on personal educational goals and how one might attain them is sufficient.
Quote:
|
Will the classroom discussion afterward be fair and balanced or slanted? Should we go and monitor what goes on? If we don't agree with the discussions direction should I leave with my kids or confront the teacher?
|
If you're concerned, arrange to sit in with the class - I'd wager the discussion with a teacher such as you've described might be a bit more balanced if you did.
I invited parents to come visit as often as they wanted - just made sure I personally let them know the parameters of expected behaviors and what subjects they would be seeing that day beforehand, some guidelines for participating and expressing any opinions or concerns, and then ensured we sat and
visited before they left campus to personally discuss how their day had gone/questions/concerns/etc.
Schools which deny parents an open and objective look at their programs - as well as do not allowing for appropriate parental input - are hiding something IMO.
Quote:
|
Should any grade school parent be put into such a predicament....I don't think so.
|
I disagree - schools work best when all the '
stakeholders' are
actively involved.
Unfortunately - many of the concerns brought up are valid somewhere out there - and a lot of it depends upon the relationships between the parents and the schools/teachers -
bottom-line is that a parent should attempt to do what a rational person* would think is best for their child.
And so it goes...
Richard's $.02
* Remember - there are a lot of parents with strange opinions, too.