Reply to Atlantic Article on Rolling Terrace and Outsized Role of Affluent White Parents

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Atlantic Article on Rolling Terrace and Outsized Role of Affluent White Parents"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're just down the road at ESS. Same problems, but perhaps less amplified because our kid's school doesn't have the immersion program.

Small, excessively vocal group of white, moneyed parents enforcing their values as if those values are indisputably correct. The PTA is trying to better engage the whole community, but these like 6 parents are so loud it just drowns everything else out. [/quote]

Yah how dare 6 parents try and effect change in an under performing school. Hevens forbid other kids start getting good test scores and make it out of that neighborhood.[/quote]

Exactly.  I am a member of the PTA and give generously to my kids' class as far as crayons, kleenex, hand sanitizer and pencils.  Room parent. Mixed SES, some high, some low, a lot of ESOL, huge school.  I also volunteer in the classroom once or twice a week where the student teacher ratiio is 26 to 1.  I work with kids who are not getting one on one time with the teacher at the moment.  Help them learn to read and write.  They know me and are excited to see me when I also volunteer at lunch and recess for the whole grade.  I love those kids.  I also raise money at the aucton for items that benefit all classes at the school.  I am not the only parent at the school who does this.  There are many who put time in.   According to you all, I am a horrible person.   This forum is a freaking soul sucker.  Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I appreciate our PTA members for all that they do, like pp above. If these other voices want to be heard, they need to attend the meetings and volunteer for things in order to be 'represented' at the PTA. I just don't buy the statement that six grown adults drown out any other voices. Speak up. Don't sit on the sidelines and complain you aren't represented. [/quote]

I'm the PP who originally mentioned the small group of overly vocal parents at ESS. The issue isn't that parents who donate their immaterial and material resources to the school--like myself and the PP who mistakenly understood my comment to be casting her/him as a "horrible person", among many other dedicated families--are not "heard", it's that a handful of parents whine incessantly and advocate unskillfully for minutiae that matters tremendously to them but likely isn't even on the radar for the rest of us. "Being heard" is just a sliver of all that "being involved" comprises. When there are legitimate problems to tackle, then let's give those problems our due attention. But bemoaning indoor recess and sugar in yogurt like it's this huge undermining of your child's human rights is just ridiculous. It sucks up attention and marginalizes all the other work of "being involved". Honestly, avoiding these traps is part of the work that people have to do in terms of recognizing their privilege and making space for more voices.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics