You're looking at this beautiful new school with the driven, articulate principal (Ms. Brown probably wouldn't infer it from the things I say about SPARK on this blog, but I'm a fan) and the hand-picked teachers, all of whom seem to be really on the ball, and you're thinking, wow, we really got lucky, it could have been so much worse.
And you declare yourself satisfied and pack your kids off to school each day confident things are just peachy, and in doing so you do them a big disservice.
Because you are not pushing hard enough. YOU.
Here's why you don't push.
1. You're busy. You have to make a living, after all.
2. You'd feel guilty demanding more, because already you seem to have so much more than many Atlantans.
3. You don't want to offend the teachers and administrators at SPARK, and you are afraid of being seen as classist (or, worse, racist) if you even raise the idea that things at SPARK could be better.
Well, stop whining and start doing your job, because your job is to secure for your children the best possible education, not worry about what anybody else is getting, or what some teacher or administrator might think of you. Your job is to get in there and, in this order:
1. Figure out the upper limit of what's possible, given our resources and parent community.
2. Insist on setting the bar at that height--the limit of what's possible.
3. Vigilantly monitor progress in all areas, and fulfill your proper role as taxpaying steward of the public schools when the public school bureaucracy falls short.
4. Ask nicely whenever possible, but be demanding whenever necessary.
Admit it. Most of you who are reading this are thrilled to have SPARK as it is. You have let yourselves be persuaded that it's truly an excellent public elementary school, and you go to GREAT pains to make sure you don't come across as infringing on the turf of the teachers or admins.
But it's not their turf. It's your turf. It's your child we're talking about, not theirs.
Be polite, by all means. Be solicitous and kind. But remember that you are the dog and they are the tail, not the other way around, and don't let yourself get wagged.
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I welcome comments to the blog so long as they are civil in tone and stay on-topic. (You may be very critical of someone/something and still remain civil). The internet is a place where good manners seemingly go to die. That is not going to happen here.