My response to APS 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey

[Anonymous]

I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


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Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

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same.

[Anonymous]

1000%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1000%

Math!

[Anonymous]

Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

The whole "strategic plan" sucks. It's a composition of vague general statements. It's meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Agree with this all!!! I worry so much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

I also don’t feel comfortable sharing my perspectives in a survey sent through a personal, traceable link.

I’m also not wasting my time on writing out long answers just so they can ignore them they way they have on the ThoughtWhatever platform they just rolled out.

I can promise you, though, that the cost to deploy the survey and analyze these qualitative findings is $$$$$ — and the findings be completely ignored

[Anonymous]

Probably you have valid points. When you communicate the way you're communicating you're points, it is easy to ignore you. It's fine that you're "angry". If you want to be taken seriously, less sweeping hysteria and broad generalizations and more constructive criticism and specifics. They aren't going to read past "the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children". Starting out that way, you are not a person to be taken seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably you have valid points. When you communicate the way you're communicating your points, it is easy to ignore you. It's fine that you're "angry". If you want to be taken seriously, less sweeping hysteria and broad generalizations and more constructive criticism and specifics. They aren't going to read past "the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children". Starting out that way, you are not a person to be taken seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly this survey sucks. How do you even make any conclusions out of such open ended questions. I mean I think hour answers are great OP but I think as a data collection method this survey sucks

I also don’t feel comfortable sharing my perspectives in a survey sent through a personal, traceable link.

I’m also not wasting my time on writing out long answers just so they can ignore them they way they have on the ThoughtWhatever platform they just rolled out.

I can promise you, though, that the cost to deploy the survey and analyze these qualitative findings is $$$$$ — and the findings be completely ignored

I don’t care about the traceability of the survey, but I 100% agree with you on the other points. When I clicked on it, I was hoping that there would be an opportunity to provide meaningful input rather than a “hopes and dreams” narrative that they will promptly ignore. What a waste of time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

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Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably you have valid points. When you communicate the way you're communicating you're points, it is easy to ignore you. It's fine that you're "angry". If you want to be taken seriously, less sweeping hysteria and broad generalizations and more constructive criticism and specifics. They aren't going to read past "the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children". Starting out that way, you are not a person to be taken seriously.

Yup I bet this person had an Open Schools Now sign and was yelling at teachers to do their jobs and trying to recall school board members back in 2021. That's my mental picture at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.


----
Question - What do you hope for the students?
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---

Did it occur to you that maybe the teacher is fighting an uphill battle to teach spelling and punctuation, given all the prior years of schooling that have neglected it, and sometimes she just needs to put a stamp on a paper and move it out, so she could get on with the 399 other things she’s been told to get to that day? That CKLA is not the fault of the teacher?

So at what point does someone put a stop to it, correct it, and teach the students how to write properly? You're excusing teachers from focusing on basic spelling and grammar because they're busy with other things?!

At what point do parents realize it’s on them? I have no faith in our schools, so I teach my kids myself.