So now maybe I get it.
Two weeks ago I asked parents who bailed out of the public schools and sent their kids to a charter (or private, or religious) school to tell me why.
I asked because school “choice” is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. In part — here in Florida at least — that’s because the state Legislature keeps throwing more and more money at it, arguably robbing public education to do so.
But as I wrote, you can produce all the supply you want, but you still need demand. And demand is exploding, and I wanted to know why.
I’ve had kids in the public schools since 2006 and at no point was our experience so terrible that I thought we needed to seek greener charter/private/religious pastures.
But my column provoked some five dozen responses from parents whose mileage varied greatly. The public schools, they said, had failed their kids — so they made the switch.
Some kids had special needs that weren’t being met. Several talked of disorder in the schools, insensitive (or worse) teachers and administrators.
Many worried public education has become too reliant on technology. And many, many talked of how their public school spent so much time “teaching to the test,” the Florida Standard Assessments or FSAs in particular, that it made parents wonder if the broader educational experience was being sacrificed for the short-term goal of getting a good mark on the exam.
Caitlin Spaulding of Hobe Sound summed up all the responses in her penultimate paragraph:
“I want better for my kids. I don’t want them stuck in front of computers all day. I don’t want them hindered by their classmates misbehavior. I don’t want them bored due to an unchallenging curriculum. I don’t want them being taught things just so they can pass standardized tests.”
Her kids will attend the new Martin County charter school, Treasure Coast Classical Academy, which “seems to encompass all that I want for my kids, (and) the parents choosing TCCA all seem like-minded in this.”
Indeed, in choosing something other than the public schools, these parents have found a community of others who want more, who are determined to be super-involved with their kids’ education, who realize involved parents make for better schools all around.
Agnes Palmer pulled her daughter from St. Lucie County schools in second grade. “I was very involved serving on the PTO and the SAC (school advisory council) committees, and participation was very, very low,” said Palmer. Her daughter now attends the Renaissance Charter School at Tradition, where parents are required to put in volunteer hours, effectively mandating parental involvement.
“I believe this also leads to a different caliber of student because involved parents make a difference,” Palmer said.
Three years ago Jennifer Gilliland, a former school teacher and college professor, moved to Martin County from South Carolina, where her daughter attended a Montessori school. She was “shell shocked” by what her daughter encountered in third grade:
“The fun was taken out of the learning,” wrote Gilliland, who will send her daughter to TCCA. “They were taught the test day in and day out. Limited art, music, history …
“I went from seeing her engaged, talking about what she learned to just nothing — no interesting assignments, no projects, nothing. She NEVER had anything to share at the dinner table, where previously she talked most nights about something she did or learned. That spoke volumes to me.”
By now I’m hearing this little voice in the back of my head, saying: Look, that’s not the fault of the public schools. Of course teachers just want to teach; but when their evaluations are based in large part on how well the kids do on these tests, what do we expect?
It’s a legitimate point. But it doesn’t do the parents who responded to my query any favors.
There is, I think, an element of class involved in many parents’ choice, though few framed it exactly that way. Some parents talked of how their kids were in class with slower learners — maybe kids who didn’t speak English — and how the whole class had to slow down to accommodate those children.
And several talked of how lower-income schools in their neighborhood seemed to suffer from endemic discipline issues, and these parents simply didn’t want their kids going to school in such an environment.
Were or are some of these concerns overblown? Maybe, but that’s not the point.
I’ve heard a variation on all the parents’ complaints from public school teachers themselves. The schools, they’ve said, are just different places than they were even a decade ago; kids are needier, requiring so many more resources. More and more parents simply aren’t around. The freedom to teach has been curtailed by standardized testing and other factors. And while the curriculum evolves, does it really do more to produce open, bright minds?
When even public school teachers say this, are parents not supposed to perceive it? What of parents who do, who want the best for their children and wish to be in a scholastic environment where everyone — kids, parents, educators — is rowing hard in the same direction?
I remain and will remain a supporter of public education for any number of reasons. I think a strong education system for all is vital for our collective future.
But, thanks to those who responded and shared their stories. Now I better understand those who make a different decision, who believe their first duty is not to “the system,” or the broader community — but to their own kids.
Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.