Teacher/Parent/Student Contracts
This past Tuesday,
February 29, 2000, at our weekly Faculty Meeting, our Principal announced that
next year, 2000-2001, all parents, teachers, and students would be required to
sign a Contract in North Carolina. Period. No
questions. No discussion.
I have come under attack so many times by the employment of
the "Alinsky Method" that I did not ask any questions about this
Contract, such as "What does this Contract Say?" Or, how is it possible for Parents who
can not speak, read, or write English to sign this Contract? I teach English as a Second Language in
an elementary school. Many of my
students' parents cannot speak, read, or write English, and I silently wondered
how these parents would be able to know what they were signing, unless
Translators are available.
I remembered, however, that my daughter, who lives in South
Carolina, had told me some months ago that she had signed a Contract at my
grandson's school. I remembered
some months ago that I had asked her about the Contract, and she said that the
Governor of the State of South Carolina is requiring it of all parents of
students enrolled in public schools in South Carolina.
Since the announcement by our Principal this past week about
the North Carolina Contract for Teachers, Parents, and Students, I decided to
call my daughter this weekend to ask her more questions about the Contract in
South Carolina that she had signed.
She said that it basically said that as a parent you would make sure
that your child does his/her homework, gets enough rest; and, she said that,
basically, the Contract was listing the types of things that good parents do
for their school aged children anyhow.
I then asked her if she had a copy of the Contract she had
signed. She said
"no". "WHAT!" I
said. I asked her again why she
didn't have a copy of what she had signed.
She said that it was presented to her in what she assumed was one of the
regular teacher-parent conferences, and she did not know in advance that this
Contract was going to be presented to her to sign at the time of the
conference, and I got a sense that she had felt under pressure to sign the
Contract at the time of her conference.
While I was still trying to recover from shock that any
child of mine would not automatically know to have a photocopy of a signed
document of this and other types, my daughter went on to add that she "had
the feeling that this would be a way that 'they' could take your children away
from you."
Then I remembered back this past fall when, again, at one of
our Faculty Meetings, there was a woman who came to speak to us from The Boys
and The Girls Club, and she encouraged us to have the children join. She went one to say how they have
regular programs for the after school children, including helping the children
with their homework. And, this
woman went on to state, that if the parents don't make sure that their children
do their homework, she said, and I quote, "We can have their children
taken away from them." I could
barely keep from gasping at that remark!
I swear the woman said this!
I did regain enough of my initial shock to note that other teachers were
having a slight reaction to the remark.
Bare in mind that once a person has been conditioned into silence
(through the Delphi Technique and the Alinsky Method), very little waves are
made.
So, a Contract for North Carolina Teachers, Parents, and
Students is coming for the school year 2000-2001. I doubt that we will know what the
Contract will say until minutes before we are presented it, or we present it to
parents. Everything is done in a
last-minute haze at my school, and now I realize why: So you don't have time to THINK about
it.
I also think that parents will be so caught off-guard, as in
the case of my daughter, that they might not have the presence of mind to
demand that they have a photocopy of this Contract. Further, I suspect that this Contract
will not be available or released in advance of an actual Conference of
Teacher/Parent and or/Student, to give all the parties involved an opportunity
to consult with legal counsel.
Further, I suspect that the Contract will be placed in the
Student Cumulative Folder for all future reference. Additionally, I would not be at all
surprised if the Contract information goes into a database, or going into
cross-referenceable electronic transfer systems such
as SPEEDE/ExPRESS.
Any thinking person must wonder why a Contract is being
implemented in our public schools.
What are the reasons? What
are the ramifications?
Please feel free to share this letter far and wide. If your State does not have this type of
Teacher/Parent/Student Contract, I think it will soon be coming. Please start connecting the dots.
"Miss Dove"
March 5, 2000
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