I just came from an educational support group. I sent out over 800 flyers to parents in my town, asking them to come to this meeting to help plan topics they would be interested in learning about. (learing disabilities, IEP process, behavior concerns ect.) 8 people came. I included reg ed parents in this mailing, along with the spec ed parents. They don’t understand. Our basic skills classes are full to capacity, with not enough room to accomodate all the children who need this. (why do so many need it? can it be that “balanced literacy program”?) Through my own experiences with my LD daughter, I became determined to help parents to learn what they need to know to make sure their children get the help they need. Now I realize I am banging my head against the wall. Our resource rooms don’t follow any multisensory, systematic approach to teaching reading. The reg ed teachers still embrace whole language. Assistive technology is never considered. Pre and post testing is like asking for the moon. For crying out loud, who will make this system better????
Where were all the parents???? Does anyone in the school read the current research on reading???? I just don’t get it…………..:-( Sorry to rant on, but I wanted to come to a place where parents and teachers DO understand. I feel like I stand alone in my town…..
Re: Discouraged
I think getting 8 people to a planning meeting is a pretty good start. I hope those 8 came up with some ideas and that you are planning another event on a topic with broad interest such as reading challenges or sensory integration. If you invite a couple of speakers that you think highly of and advertise it well, I bet you’ll start to get a lager response.
Good luck!
Re: Discouraged
These days most parents work outside the home. It’s hard to stay on top of your child’s school -much less the details of it - when you’re working and raising children all at the same time. It leaves most of the hard work to dedicated people like you.
Good luck.
Re: Discouraged
Congratulations on getting some participation at your meeting. It is not an easy task starting up a group but if you keep working with the people that were interested I bet you will get more interest.
If you ask most teachers there are lots of parents that won’t go and meet with the teacher. I know it is hard sometimes to get to meetings.
Keep trying.
Re: Discouraged
Star,
I’m with you. Same situation here. Too bad we’re not in the same place so there would be two of us!
Janis
Re: Discouraged
Your concerns are certainly justified and your method of getting people together is a great beginning. If you felt that any of those eight parents can be of help, take another step, even if it is small.
I faced the same situation in my own district with my own son. No one wanted to hear that they need to use specific research based reading programs, especially once kids have reached special ed. I wrote and sent articles to the school board, hired an advocate for my son. My coup was getting the story about the need for reading programs on the front page of the local (Los Angeles Times) newspaper. Still most people in my district ignored the article and its implications. “De Nile” is more than a river in Egypt.
For ourselves, I went to a final board meeting and said goodbye. We sold our house and moved to take our son to a private school. Thankfully, I actually got a job in a large district that is doing lots of training and programs for kids and their teachers. There are some on the ball districts out there. You are making a difference. I know it is frustrating, but you are helping even if it seems like “one starfish at a time”.
Could be they don’t want to be considered troublemakers and make a bad situation worse. Getting people activated is an art form of its own — we’ve all got defenses (or we’d all go nuts — there are so many things we should be Doing Something About).