This Trigger Thing Got Me Thinking

Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. As long as we’re considering letting parents storm the castle and overturn school board decisions, what else could parents opt to do? Are there local, state, and federal policies in place that parent could individually choose to disregard for their children? Here are some thoughts:

“It’ll take a miracle!”

• Compulsory attendance
• School start age
• Classroom assignment
• Seating charts
• School lunch and bus rules
• Using #2 pencils
• Remembering who your buddy is on field trips
• Attendance, dress code, and discipline policies
• Making students pass classes (or live within a school’s attendance lines) to play sports
• Graduation requirements
• And of course, high stakes testing

If parents are going to assert their rights, why not start with the ultimate waste of time and money. Testing is a multi-billion dollar industry. It does not tell us things that we wouldn’t otherwise know about our kids. But it does cost us instructional time and squelch creativity – both from the teacher and the student.