UMC parents in low income schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is a white person with money supposed to do. We go to all rich schools with high test scores we are greedy racists who don’t share. We go to poor schools and try and raise the standards and abdicate for our kids (the horror I know) we are oppressive and not sensitive to people who can’t keep up. If we go private we are elitist who are the scum of the earth.

What you really want is rich people to go sit in the corner and be quite. That isn’t how power works even if the new generation has confused outrage with power.

Advocate for your kids, please.

But don't advocate ONLY for your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours. The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population.

The PTA President doesn't get to make all the decisions. Even the Board doesn't get to make all decisions. Votes should be open to members at meetings to vote on budget items. Anyone can propose an amendment on the floor for a public vote. Get more involved in your PTA and more educated on how PTA is *supposed* to work, then you can effect change. If there is an issue with the PTA board at your local school, go to your Cluster Coordinator or Area VP for support. Contact the MCCPTA if you don't know who your cluster coordinator or Area VP are.

I suggest you read the article. You can't expect poor, non-English speaking parents who barely have a high school education if that to walk into a PTA meeting and take on the 4-5 mothers with advanced degrees who are controlling everything by calling for a floor vote and an amendment to get interpreters. The point of the article is that the low income parents are intimidated by them and have neither the time nor debate skills to prevail.

Excuses and more excuses. You are an enabler to a population that keeps considering themselves as inferior. Keep catering to them and they will never step out of their comfort zone. Why not empower them to stand up and speak up for themselves rather than doing it for them? Sounds harsh but it is indeed a harsh and competitive world.

It's a special kind of gift to see immigrants who move somewhere where they can't speak the language as people who don't leave their "comfort zones."

.

Immigration is a choice and privilege. As an immigrant, I appreciate the oppotunity and wanted to learn everything in this country. If I don't want to live in this country, I would not worok so hard try to be here. I am not coming here to ask others to adopt to my culture, my language, and my community. I dont need white people to tell me that I am weak, I cannot learn the language, i need to be protected.
It is funny to see one group of white people try to tell the other group of white people that they should not get involved in high poverty school, they should not donate to teacher, they should run events which only white people enjoy. Did anyone read the article? Excetp the Chromebook issue, all other complains are nonsense. As the digital gap, please tell me how many poor family has no digital device in their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Immigration is a choice and privilege. As an immigrant, I appreciate the oppotunity and wanted to learn everything in this country. If I don't want to live in this country, I would not worok so hard try to be here. I am not coming here to ask others to adopt to my culture, my language, and my community. I dont need white people to tell me that I am weak, I cannot learn the language, i need to be protected.
It is funny to see one group of white people try to tell the other group of white people that they should not get involved in high poverty school, they should not donate to teacher, they should run events which only white people enjoy. Did anyone read the article? Excetp the Chromebook issue, all other complains are nonsense. As the digital gap, please tell me how many poor family has no digital device in their house.

This is what interpreters do: interpret. It's good for communication when there are language barriers.. Communication is a good thing.

If you don't want an interpreter, you don't have to use one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours. The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population.

The PTA President doesn't get to make all the decisions. Even the Board doesn't get to make all decisions. Votes should be open to members at meetings to vote on budget items. Anyone can propose an amendment on the floor for a public vote. Get more involved in your PTA and more educated on how PTA is *supposed* to work, then you can effect change. If there is an issue with the PTA board at your local school, go to your Cluster Coordinator or Area VP for support. Contact the MCCPTA if you don't know who your cluster coordinator or Area VP are.

I suggest you read the article. You can't expect poor, non-English speaking parents who barely have a high school education if that to walk into a PTA meeting and take on the 4-5 mothers with advanced degrees who are controlling everything by calling for a floor vote and an amendment to get interpreters. The point of the article is that the low income parents are intimidated by them and have neither the time nor debate skills to prevail.

Excuses and more excuses. You are an enabler to a population that keeps considering themselves as inferior. Keep catering to them and they will never step out of their comfort zone. Why not empower them to stand up and speak up for themselves rather than doing it for them? Sounds harsh but it is indeed a harsh and competitive world.

It's a special kind of gift to see immigrants who move somewhere where they can't speak the language as people who don't leave their "comfort zones."

All immigrants that come to the US should learn to speak English. There are free adult ESL classes all over the county, at libraries, churches etc. Some people do not make the effort because someone keeps on translating for them. Learning to communicate in English will help them communicate better with their children, get jobs etc.

[Anonymous]

VERY interesting, thanks, OP.
I recognize similar issues at my kid's elementary!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a white person with money supposed to do. We go to all rich schools with high test scores we are greedy racists who don’t share. We go to poor schools and try and raise the standards and abdicate for our kids (the horror I know) we are oppressive and not sensitive to people who can’t keep up. If we go private we are elitist who are the scum of the earth.

What you really want is rich people to go sit in the corner and be quite. That isn’t how power works even if the new generation has confused outrage with power.

Advocate for your kids, please.

But don't advocate ONLY for your kids.

Will an URM parent ever advocate for UMC children? Will poor parents ever advocate for the rich kids in the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours. The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population.

The PTA President doesn't get to make all the decisions. Even the Board doesn't get to make all decisions. Votes should be open to members at meetings to vote on budget items. Anyone can propose an amendment on the floor for a public vote. Get more involved in your PTA and more educated on how PTA is *supposed* to work, then you can effect change. If there is an issue with the PTA board at your local school, go to your Cluster Coordinator or Area VP for support. Contact the MCCPTA if you don't know who your cluster coordinator or Area VP are.

I suggest you read the article. You can't expect poor, non-English speaking parents who barely have a high school education if that to walk into a PTA meeting and take on the 4-5 mothers with advanced degrees who are controlling everything by calling for a floor vote and an amendment to get interpreters. The point of the article is that the low income parents are intimidated by them and have neither the time nor debate skills to prevail.

Excuses and more excuses. You are an enabler to a population that keeps considering themselves as inferior. Keep catering to them and they will never step out of their comfort zone. Why not empower them to stand up and speak up for themselves rather than doing it for them? Sounds harsh but it is indeed a harsh and competitive world.

It's a special kind of gift to see immigrants who move somewhere where they can't speak the language as people who don't leave their "comfort zones."

All immigrants that come to the US should learn to speak English. There are free adult ESL classes all over the county, at libraries, churches etc. Some people do not make the effort because someone keeps on translating for them. Learning to communicate in English will help them communicate better with their children, get jobs etc.

And yet there were posts not too long ago about how even after 5 years of middle and HS foreign language, kids in MCPS still can't become fluent in a foreign language. Let that sink in about how difficult it is to fluently learn a foreign language after the "critical period" for language acquisition has closed.

Just because someone needs a translator does not mean that they are not also learning English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours. The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population.

The PTA President doesn't get to make all the decisions. Even the Board doesn't get to make all decisions. Votes should be open to members at meetings to vote on budget items. Anyone can propose an amendment on the floor for a public vote. Get more involved in your PTA and more educated on how PTA is *supposed* to work, then you can effect change. If there is an issue with the PTA board at your local school, go to your Cluster Coordinator or Area VP for support. Contact the MCCPTA if you don't know who your cluster coordinator or Area VP are.

I suggest you read the article. You can't expect poor, non-English speaking parents who barely have a high school education if that to walk into a PTA meeting and take on the 4-5 mothers with advanced degrees who are controlling everything by calling for a floor vote and an amendment to get interpreters. The point of the article is that the low income parents are intimidated by them and have neither the time nor debate skills to prevail.

Excuses and more excuses. You are an enabler to a population that keeps considering themselves as inferior. Keep catering to them and they will never step out of their comfort zone. Why not empower them to stand up and speak up for themselves rather than doing it for them? Sounds harsh but it is indeed a harsh and competitive world.

It's a special kind of gift to see immigrants who move somewhere where they can't speak the language as people who don't leave their "comfort zones."

All immigrants that come to the US should learn to speak English. There are free adult ESL classes all over the county, at libraries, churches etc. Some people do not make the effort because someone keeps on translating for them. Learning to communicate in English will help them communicate better with their children, get jobs etc.

And yet there were posts not too long ago about how even after 5 years of middle and HS foreign language, kids in MCPS still can't become fluent in a foreign language. Let that sink in about how difficult it is to fluently learn a foreign language after the "critical period" for language acquisition has closed.

Just because someone needs a translator does not mean that they are not also learning English.

You do not have to be fluent in English to understand what goes on in a PTA meeting. Elementary level English is good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a white person with money supposed to do. We go to all rich schools with high test scores we are greedy racists who don’t share. We go to poor schools and try and raise the standards and abdicate for our kids (the horror I know) we are oppressive and not sensitive to people who can’t keep up. If we go private we are elitist who are the scum of the earth.

What you really want is rich people to go sit in the corner and be quite. That isn’t how power works even if the new generation has confused outrage with power.

Advocate for your kids, please.

But don't advocate ONLY for your kids.

What happens when they have conflicting needs?

If you take the “should step aside, they be fine either way” angle due to the odds
Do i get the “yours shouldn’t take a resource, it will only go to waste most likely”

[Anonymous]

I have been that mom.
Always provided interpretation yet participation was low. I choose to think it is because they can’t, not won’t.
Advocated for my child, yes, but kept being told that teachers don’t have resources to really differentiate (except if a kid is really gifted and willing to do extra work after having done what is busywork for them).
My kid finally lotteried into a middle class school recently and I am so happy.
I have come to think that the needs and wants of UMC and farms/ESOL are almost the opposites. They are so different that it is impossible to cater to both groups in the same school unless they are separate groups maybe (tracking).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been that mom.
Always provided interpretation yet participation was low. I choose to think it is because they can’t, not won’t.
Advocated for my child, yes, but kept being told that teachers don’t have resources to really differentiate (except if a kid is really gifted and willing to do extra work after having done what is busywork for them).
My kid finally lotteried into a middle class school recently and I am so happy.
I have come to think that the needs and wants of UMC and farms/ESOL are almost the opposites. They are so different that it is impossible to cater to both groups in the same school unless they are separate groups maybe (tracking).

Very interesting post, thank you. What do you think are the different needs of these two groups?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree. I work at a high FARMS school where the PTA president refuses to spend PTA money on interpreters to attend the PTA meetings, which essentially keeps the Spanish speaking majority away from participating in the PTA. When we looked closely at the budget and expenses, we saw that the amount of money spent on book fair decorations would pay for the interpreter for the whole year but the president still wouldn't budge. They said that if a staff member would volunteer their time to interpret then they would be ok with it. Staff members ended up finding high school students needing SSL hours. The PTA serves the interests of the English speaking UMC minority, and not the majority of the school's population.

The PTA President doesn't get to make all the decisions. Even the Board doesn't get to make all decisions. Votes should be open to members at meetings to vote on budget items. Anyone can propose an amendment on the floor for a public vote. Get more involved in your PTA and more educated on how PTA is *supposed* to work, then you can effect change. If there is an issue with the PTA board at your local school, go to your Cluster Coordinator or Area VP for support. Contact the MCCPTA if you don't know who your cluster coordinator or Area VP are.

I suggest you read the article. You can't expect poor, non-English speaking parents who barely have a high school education if that to walk into a PTA meeting and take on the 4-5 mothers with advanced degrees who are controlling everything by calling for a floor vote and an amendment to get interpreters. The point of the article is that the low income parents are intimidated by them and have neither the time nor debate skills to prevail.

You have no clue what you're talking about. You don't need a vote or amendment to get an interpreter. Have you actually ever been to a PTA meeting? Or do you prefer virtue signaling from the sidelines?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a white person with money supposed to do. We go to all rich schools with high test scores we are greedy racists who don’t share. We go to poor schools and try and raise the standards and abdicate for our kids (the horror I know) we are oppressive and not sensitive to people who can’t keep up. If we go private we are elitist who are the scum of the earth.

What you really want is rich people to go sit in the corner and be quite. That isn’t how power works even if the new generation has confused outrage with power.

Advocate for your kids, please.

But don't advocate ONLY for your kids.

What happens when they have conflicting needs?

If you take the “should step aside, they be fine either way” angle due to the odds
Do i get the “yours shouldn’t take a resource, it will only go to waste most likely”

Then, as a parent, you advocate for your child, but as a PTA person, you advocate for all of the children in the school.

And if you are unable to separate the two roles and advocate for all of the children in the school as a PTA person, then don't be a PTA person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You have no clue what you're talking about. You don't need a vote or amendment to get an interpreter. Have you actually ever been to a PTA meeting? Or do you prefer virtue signaling from the sidelines?

The phrase "virtue signaling," like the phrase "close your/her legs," has the benefit of being an efficient way to show that the post contains nothing of value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a white person with money supposed to do. We go to all rich schools with high test scores we are greedy racists who don’t share. We go to poor schools and try and raise the standards and abdicate for our kids (the horror I know) we are oppressive and not sensitive to people who can’t keep up. If we go private we are elitist who are the scum of the earth.

What you really want is rich people to go sit in the corner and be quite. That isn’t how power works even if the new generation has confused outrage with power.

Advocate for your kids, please.

But don't advocate ONLY for your kids.

What happens when they have conflicting needs?

If you take the “should step aside, they be fine either way” angle due to the odds
Do i get the “yours shouldn’t take a resource, it will only go to waste most likely”

Then, as a parent, you advocate for your child, but as a PTA person, you advocate for all of the children in the school.

And if you are unable to separate the two roles and advocate for all of the children in the school as a PTA person, then don't be a PTA person.

^^^Also, is this a new issue? No. Here's Rabbi Hillel, 2000 years ago: "If I am not for me, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, who am I?"