Serious Answers Only—How to Fix MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

PP here. Sometimes plain talk is necessary. Some of these people truly do need a comeuppance.

Ahh, yes, telling someone to “know their place” is always a good way to engender trust, particularly when social values are at play.

It is for the radical Moms of Liberty sort, who are so far passed behaving like reasonable or civil people that they can’t be reasoned with. So, yeah, those people need to told in no uncertain terms that their views are invalid and not to share them anymore. Putting them in their place would go a long way to achieving that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

PP here. Sometimes plain talk is necessary. Some of these people truly do need a comeuppance.

Ahh, yes, telling someone to “know their place” is always a good way to engender trust, particularly when social values are at play.

It is for the radical Moms of Liberty sort, who are so far passed behaving like reasonable or civil people that they can’t be reasoned with. So, yeah, those people need to told in no uncertain terms that their views are invalid and not to share them anymore. Putting them in their place would go a long way to achieving that.

But you’re not going to “put them in their place.” You’re just going to reinforce their distrust in you.

Heck, I agree with the substantive points you've expressed here, but with your attitude, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

DP. That depends on which "concerned parents" and what the parents are concerned about, no?

I also agree with the substance of the post. I am the expert in my child (along with my child), and I have parental authority over my child. I am not the expert on teaching or learning, and I don't have parental authority over children who are not my child. Parents who want to micromanage their children's education need to home-school.

The “I am an expert on my child” but is valid but there’s a fine line between advocating particular needs and helicoptering and demanding acquiescence to your perceived needs, often at the expense of other children.

I argue they shouldn’t home school. They really should sit down, shut up and let their child learn from professionals.

One of the most bizarre complaints in recent years is the one where parents complain their white children feel guilty or ashamed of their skin color after lessons about slavery, equity, etc. Most of this reaction comes from a good, if ignorant place and an impulse to protect their children from discomfort. And many of these parents are just sick of this race talk already and think we live in a color blind society; their well-meaning parents likely taught them not to see color.

But here’s where letting the professionals handle this is better:

1) Sometimes learning *is* uncomfortable. Dealing with cognitive dissonance is necessary in order to become better educated, more empathetic, more enlightened and a better member of society in general; this will in turn actually move us closer to a genuine color-blind utopia. The problem is the parents never got this education themselves and so feel theatened and personally attacked. They consider themselves good people — and they probably are — but they are closed minded to considering other perspectives.

2) Your white child’s temporary discomfort in learning this material is fleeting. And it pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the discomfort people of other colors feel more regularly navigating our society. Trying to protect them from the discomfort instead helping to transcend it only reinforces bigotry.

It is probably not better for the children of M4L people if the M4L people home-school instead of sending their children to public school. It would definitely better for society, however, if the M4L people didn't engage with the public school system - given that their goal is to dismantle the public school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

PP here. Sometimes plain talk is necessary. Some of these people truly do need a comeuppance.

Ahh, yes, telling someone to “know their place” is always a good way to engender trust, particularly when social values are at play.

It is for the radical Moms of Liberty sort, who are so far passed behaving like reasonable or civil people that they can’t be reasoned with. So, yeah, those people need to told in no uncertain terms that their views are invalid and not to share them anymore. Putting them in their place would go a long way to achieving that.

But you’re not going to “put them in their place.” You’re just going to reinforce their distrust in you.

Heck, I agree with the substantive points you've expressed here, but with your attitude, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near my kids.

That’s fine. You can take a seat, too. I will handle things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

DP. That depends on which "concerned parents" and what the parents are concerned about, no?

I also agree with the substance of the post. I am the expert in my child (along with my child), and I have parental authority over my child. I am not the expert on teaching or learning, and I don't have parental authority over children who are not my child. Parents who want to micromanage their children's education need to home-school.

The “I am an expert on my child” but is valid but there’s a fine line between advocating particular needs and helicoptering and demanding acquiescence to your perceived needs, often at the expense of other children.

I argue they shouldn’t home school. They really should sit down, shut up and let their child learn from professionals.

One of the most bizarre complaints in recent years is the one where parents complain their white children feel guilty or ashamed of their skin color after lessons about slavery, equity, etc. Most of this reaction comes from a good, if ignorant place and an impulse to protect their children from discomfort. And many of these parents are just sick of this race talk already and think we live in a color blind society; their well-meaning parents likely taught them not to see color.

But here’s where letting the professionals handle this is better:

1) Sometimes learning *is* uncomfortable. Dealing with cognitive dissonance is necessary in order to become better educated, more empathetic, more enlightened and a better member of society in general; this will in turn actually move us closer to a genuine color-blind utopia. The problem is the parents never got this education themselves and so feel theatened and personally attacked. They consider themselves good people — and they probably are — but they are closed minded to considering other perspectives.

2) Your white child’s temporary discomfort in learning this material is fleeting. And it pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the discomfort people of other colors feel more regularly navigating our society. Trying to protect them from the discomfort instead helping to transcend it only reinforces bigotry.

It is probably not better for the children of M4L people if the M4L people home-school instead of sending their children to public school. It would definitely better for society, however, if the M4L people didn't engage with the public school system - given that their goal is to dismantle the public school system.

Careful- directing people to private schools is also a way to dismantle the public school system. If that happens at scale, people aren’t going to want their tax dollars going to schools they're not going to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

PP here. Sometimes plain talk is necessary. Some of these people truly do need a comeuppance.

Ahh, yes, telling someone to “know their place” is always a good way to engender trust, particularly when social values are at play.

It is for the radical Moms of Liberty sort, who are so far passed behaving like reasonable or civil people that they can’t be reasoned with. So, yeah, those people need to told in no uncertain terms that their views are invalid and not to share them anymore. Putting them in their place would go a long way to achieving that.

But you’re not going to “put them in their place.” You’re just going to reinforce their distrust in you.

Heck, I agree with the substantive points you've expressed here, but with your attitude, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near my kids.

DP. I do not expect to be able to have a reasonable engagement with the M4L people, no matter what I say. It's not like they would trust me more if I trotted out all of my white suburban cis/het married mom with minivan credentials. There are fundamental disagreements about education, society, religion, even just basic facts. Though, conversely, I also do not expect to be able to "put them in their place." We are fortunate in Montgomery County that the voters have little interest in M4L extremism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

DP. That depends on which "concerned parents" and what the parents are concerned about, no?

I also agree with the substance of the post. I am the expert in my child (along with my child), and I have parental authority over my child. I am not the expert on teaching or learning, and I don't have parental authority over children who are not my child. Parents who want to micromanage their children's education need to home-school.

The “I am an expert on my child” but is valid but there’s a fine line between advocating particular needs and helicoptering and demanding acquiescence to your perceived needs, often at the expense of other children.

I argue they shouldn’t home school. They really should sit down, shut up and let their child learn from professionals.

One of the most bizarre complaints in recent years is the one where parents complain their white children feel guilty or ashamed of their skin color after lessons about slavery, equity, etc. Most of this reaction comes from a good, if ignorant place and an impulse to protect their children from discomfort. And many of these parents are just sick of this race talk already and think we live in a color blind society; their well-meaning parents likely taught them not to see color.

But here’s where letting the professionals handle this is better:

1) Sometimes learning *is* uncomfortable. Dealing with cognitive dissonance is necessary in order to become better educated, more empathetic, more enlightened and a better member of society in general; this will in turn actually move us closer to a genuine color-blind utopia. The problem is the parents never got this education themselves and so feel theatened and personally attacked. They consider themselves good people — and they probably are — but they are closed minded to considering other perspectives.

2) Your white child’s temporary discomfort in learning this material is fleeting. And it pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the discomfort people of other colors feel more regularly navigating our society. Trying to protect them from the discomfort instead helping to transcend it only reinforces bigotry.

It is probably not better for the children of M4L people if the M4L people home-school instead of sending their children to public school. It would definitely better for society, however, if the M4L people didn't engage with the public school system - given that their goal is to dismantle the public school system.

Careful- directing people to private schools is also a way to dismantle the public school system. If that happens at scale, people aren’t going to want their tax dollars going to schools they're not going to use.

People already don't want that, and they have been not wanting it since at least the Reagan era and vouchers, and then charter schools. The M4L attack is a direct head-on attack on public schools, not just garden-variety grumbling about how come they have to pay taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

This 100000000000000%. My kids were held back from reaching their potential on numerous occasions. This was even more evident once they made their way through college and soared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

I don’t actually disagree with the substance of the specifics of this, but I hope you understand how counterproductive the tone and rhetoric of this post would be if it were to be communicated to concerned parents.

DP. That depends on which "concerned parents" and what the parents are concerned about, no?

I also agree with the substance of the post. I am the expert in my child (along with my child), and I have parental authority over my child. I am not the expert on teaching or learning, and I don't have parental authority over children who are not my child. Parents who want to micromanage their children's education need to home-school.

The “I am an expert on my child” but is valid but there’s a fine line between advocating particular needs and helicoptering and demanding acquiescence to your perceived needs, often at the expense of other children.

I argue they shouldn’t home school. They really should sit down, shut up and let their child learn from professionals.

One of the most bizarre complaints in recent years is the one where parents complain their white children feel guilty or ashamed of their skin color after lessons about slavery, equity, etc. Most of this reaction comes from a good, if ignorant place and an impulse to protect their children from discomfort. And many of these parents are just sick of this race talk already and think we live in a color blind society; their well-meaning parents likely taught them not to see color.

But here’s where letting the professionals handle this is better:

1) Sometimes learning *is* uncomfortable. Dealing with cognitive dissonance is necessary in order to become better educated, more empathetic, more enlightened and a better member of society in general; this will in turn actually move us closer to a genuine color-blind utopia. The problem is the parents never got this education themselves and so feel theatened and personally attacked. They consider themselves good people — and they probably are — but they are closed minded to considering other perspectives.

2) Your white child’s temporary discomfort in learning this material is fleeting. And it pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the discomfort people of other colors feel more regularly navigating our society. Trying to protect them from the discomfort instead helping to transcend it only reinforces bigotry.

It is probably not better for the children of M4L people if the M4L people home-school instead of sending their children to public school. It would definitely better for society, however, if the M4L people didn't engage with the public school system - given that their goal is to dismantle the public school system.

Careful- directing people to private schools is also a way to dismantle the public school system. If that happens at scale, people aren’t going to want their tax dollars going to schools they're not going to use.

People already don't want that, and they have been not wanting it since at least the Reagan era and vouchers, and then charter schools. The M4L attack is a direct head-on attack on public schools, not just garden-variety grumbling about how come they have to pay taxes.

Realistically, it’s always been a small, but vocal, set of people taking that position. But I think there’s a growing risk that social maga-conservatives and NIMBY suburbanites will rally together on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

Education exists largely to provide what society needs, so I don’t even know what this means. Of course education should be mindful of social issues — it’s how we get a better society.

To “fix” MCPS and other schools, parents should step back and realize they are neither the experts nor are they in charge. I realize the internet has eroded trust in institutions and made everyone think they know better than actual experts about so many things. But there already exist channels for parents to have input on school policy, including curriculum. Layering on these attempts to micromanage individual classroom instruction, trying to protect children from discomfort in learning, when cognitive dissonance is often needed to achieve greater understanding, and seeking to do things like restrict or ban books and media in schools is harmful to your children and society as a whole.

Or, shorter version: Parents should listen more and talk less, know their place, and stay in their lane. People who know better than them about what children need to learn are in charge — let them do their jobs.

Dude, we are talking about MCPS here. They are perhaps the most obtuse organization ever created. They stuck with a curriculum they KNEW didn’t work for a decade. The parents called it in a few weeks. Only after they paid Johns Hopkins 500,000 did they kill it. Idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

This 100000000000000%. My kids were held back from reaching their potential on numerous occasions. This was even more evident once they made their way through college and soared.

+ 1 Why do you think your kids were held back from reaching their potential? Was it lack of access to accelerated instruction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

This 100000000000000%. My kids were held back from reaching their potential on numerous occasions. This was even more evident once they made their way through college and soared.

+ 1 Why do you think your kids were held back from reaching their potential? Was it lack of access to accelerated instruction?

It was terrible parenting. No kids with good parenting fail to reach their potential. It’s not a coincidence the kids only flourished when they went away to college and escaped from under their parents’ backwards influences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

This 100000000000000%. My kids were held back from reaching their potential on numerous occasions. This was even more evident once they made their way through college and soared.

+ 1 Why do you think your kids were held back from reaching their potential? Was it lack of access to accelerated instruction?

It was terrible parenting. No kids with good parenting fail to reach their potential. It’s not a coincidence the kids only flourished when they went away to college and escaped from under their parents’ backwards influences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to fix social issues using education. Focus on teaching and accept the fact that different kids perform differently. Build more accountability at all levels of MCPS. Stop closing the gap by bringing down high performing kids.

This 100000000000000%. My kids were held back from reaching their potential on numerous occasions. This was even more evident once they made their way through college and soared.

So they weren't really held back then, were they? Just a different flight path than you had mapped out for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have been in MCPS for 15 years and I’m just disgusted by the decline. Wondering if anyone has ideas to fix the many problems in MCPS?

Create a strong, independent school board. Pay school board members enough to make it a desirable full-time job that can and should be their primary job and primary focus, and pay for independent staff for the school board so they're not just dependent on MCPS staff for everything. The school board is far too deferential to MCPS leadership and staff, and they don't take their role as an independent oversight body seriously.