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This week we’re continuing to discuss advocacy but, if you’re wondering why should you care, let me explain why I’m belaboring this point for more than a few posts.

Everything is going fine.

My kids aren’t even in school.

Only crazy political people get into this kind of stuff.

Any of these thoughts familiar?

No doubt, you have a choice to be an advocate for your child or not. Maybe you’ll be incredibly lucky and your child will have a blessed educational life with no challenges in any area.

But, I doubt it.

I thought that. Until JJ got a diagnosis of epilepsy. Suddenly we were the other people that stuff happens to. And, like it or not (I did not,) I had to learn how to advocate for her – at preschool, at friends’ houses, everywhere. We even changed preschools because we noticed that the recess supervision at JJ’s schools was inadequate. The fear of JJ’s long seizures not being stopped meant we needed her teachers to vigilantly supervise.

Sure, it’s possible that challenges will never happen with your children.

But, challenges are part of life. So, if something comes up, I want you to have resources and wisdom and know what to do, or at least where to start.

Because your children don’t have a voice without you.

And furthermore,

speaking out FOR my child

doesn’t make me (or you)

AGAINST an entire group of people!

No one group of people can be categorized with one word – good, bad, ugly, tall, strange. No race, ethnicity, religious group, or profession. I do not believe that teachers are all one thing – meaning, I don’t believe that all teachers are good, or all are bad, or all are mediocre. How ridiculous. Just like any group of people, you get a mixture of all kinds of individuals with differences and similarities. There are some amazing, excellent teachers in this world — teachers which I’ll be profiling soon. However, some teachers are terrible and should not be teaching.

Gasp.

I said it.

Some teachers don’t do their jobs well and shouldn’t be teaching our children.

Now, does that mean I’m against teachers or I’m bashing educators?

Of course not!

Even as a 5^th grade teacher I said the same thing. I flunked a student teacher because she was mean to the children, and didn’t do her work — she wasn’t meant to be a teacher. Not if you asked me. (Which her university did.)

Teaching is a hard job and not every one is cut out for it.

I said the same thing about my 4^th grade teammate who showed up 20 minutes late almost every day — I had to start my own class while supervising his class until he arrived. He put forth the most minimal effort required and it showed. I said then and even now, he was a terrible teacher and I had to work doubly hard to catch up his students and get them excited about learning again. (He’s a principal now – which may show you the quality of principals we’re getting in the public schools.)

Our country was founded on the principal of freedom of speech. We get to have different opinions. I can think differently than you because of our marketplace of ideas. It does not make us adversaries nor does it make me against you.

So I’m saying, that not all teachers are good teachers.

And, we need to get them out of our children’s lives.

Can we move on now?

Visit the Mom Congress Parenting Magazine Page for the Parental Engagement Blog-a-Thon!

RELATED POSTS:

 Parent Advocacy Do’s and Don’ts

 I Support My School My Way — With Advocacy

 Mrs. Q. Fights School Lunch

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