How Do You Decide Which Issues Are Worth It?

[Anonymous]

How do you decide which issues to let slide and which are worth the energy to raise (and follow up on) with teachers and admin (if needed)? We're in APS, if that matters. It feels exhausting to get even simple information sometimes.

[Anonymous]

If you're talking about normal or gifted kids having to deal with the shenanigans of the APS push-in special education classes, you're SOL. You're either going to be all in or checked out, as a parent since there's no point in being in between. The environment is chaotic. There's a race to the bottom inertia. And zero oversight and zero support from admin to their teachers. I do appreciate the actually smart and dedicated teachers but they don't have time for your kid. They're too busy dealing with "that" kid.

[Anonymous]

Can you give some examples of issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you decide which issues to let slide and which are worth the energy to raise (and follow up on) with teachers and admin (if needed)? We're in APS, if that matters. It feels exhausting to get even simple information sometimes.

It changes as the student gets older. My barometer is: does this issue have a practical/reasonable solution or is admittedly a cluster fork for everyone involved; what can I do before raising the issue; and what's the impact of me raising the issue. For the BIG issues, I may just raise my concerns via the APS engage blackhole, the school board, or someone at Syphax. I never go to the admin at the school level if I can start with the teacher first, and I typically ask two students other than my own for their version of events if the issue involves my kid. That all said, I'm a highly engaged parent because I have the time to be. Not everyone can be so engaged and that's okay. Finally, if after some real internal debate your gut is telling you something is definitely wrong, address it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you decide which issues to let slide and which are worth the energy to raise (and follow up on) with teachers and admin (if needed)? We're in APS, if that matters. It feels exhausting to get even simple information sometimes.

It changes as the student gets older. My barometer is: does this issue have a practical/reasonable solution or is admittedly a cluster fork for everyone involved; what can I do before raising the issue; and what's the impact of me raising the issue. For the BIG issues, I may just raise my concerns via the APS engage blackhole, the school board, or someone at Syphax. I never go to the admin at the school level if I can start with the teacher first, and I typically ask two students other than my own for their version of events if the issue involves my kid. That all said, I'm a highly engaged parent because I have the time to be. Not everyone can be so engaged and that's okay. Finally, if after some real internal debate your gut is telling you something is definitely wrong, address it.

Thank you. This is helpful. I always start with teachers first as well.