Take Our Kids Out of School Day?

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is a day better spent in the classroom. So say many NEA member-educators. I’ve heard from some of them. “Though the concept is positive,” concedes Carolyn Melius of Indian Head, MD, she, like other members are concerned about the counterproductive effect on many students who can ill afford to miss a day of school. “Why couldn't this be held during school breaks?” Melius asks.

The event’s organizers see the day as an opportunity for parents, businesses, and the community to support educators in the difficult work of teaching kids. Carolyn McKecuen, president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation, told me that ideally, students are taught lessons about the workplace on Wednesday, experience the workplace on Thursday, and come back to class on Friday to share the experience with their classmates. “If this was done in the summer, you’d be teaching one child, not bringing that knowledge back to the classroom,” said McKecuen, herself a former teacher.

Research the foundation commissioned six years ago suggests that what was then Take Our Daughters to Work Day “increased girls' interest in education, influenced their decision to go to college or professional school, and broadened girls' thinking about their goals and aspirations with reference to work opportunities.”

But do girls and boys have to miss a day of classes to reap these benefits? I must say—and not just because I work for them—that our members have a point. Why not have kids go to work with their parents in the summer when it won’t disrupt school? While we by no means support all the high- stakes testing done as a result of the No Child Left Behind law, testing remains a reality. Kids have their own work to do. And at this time of year, a lost day of class work can impact students’ preparedness and confidence.

I’ve no doubt educators appreciate the efforts to support their work. Can we find ways to do it that don’t shorten learning time in class?

Give Them All an 'A'

As an advocacy organization we tend to write from the point of view of our 3.2 million educator-members when we write about parent-teacher relationships. Typically, our members’ point of view revolves around a pair of concerns: 1) the need to enlist parents in the effort to educate their children, and 2) the need to manage their relationships with parents, which can sometimes be difficult if not occasionally confrontational or hostile. The titles of some recent NEA Today stories -- “A Field Guide to Parents” and “How can you deal with angry parents?” -- underscore educators’ need to understand parents and to manage their relationships with them effectively. The Field Guide is intended to introduce new teachers to various types of parents they might encounter, while Angry Parents is full of advice from our readers, seasoned teachers, and other experts.

A few months ago Bill Ferriter, a writer for Teacher Magazine, wrote about the complex relationship between teachers and parents in a piece he titled, “Parents Are From Mars, Teachers Are From Venus” (this link is pass-word protected; paid subscription required). Playing off the classic book “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” Ferriter attempts to elucidate the dynamic between two groups who need each other but have only a rudimentary understanding of how to communicate and work together in a productive way. It’s a more even-handed approach (a luxury of the unaffiliated!) that examines the relationship from both points of view and seeks to build common ground with lists of pointers for both parents and teachers.

With that said, I want to introduce you to Bluebird’s Classroom, the blog of a middle school teacher who earlier this week wrote about an incident involving one of her students and the girl’s mother. Says Bluebird, “Give That Mom an A!” There are no misunderstandings, no confrontations, and no one needs a bunch of fancy-pants wonks or writers to tell them what to do or how to act. All you’ll find are teachers, administrators and parents who work remarkably well together and have enough common sense to get the job done. Everyone looks good, and (best of all) they do right by the child.