Newsletter #11 – The Old Ways are Still Here – Reflections from Parent Night

Last night was ‘Meet and Greet’, where parents come in and follow their progeny’s schedule and not only meet the teachers, but learn about each class.

Because I enjoy technology, I’m prepared to show parents how I use eSchool, Schoology, and plan to use Office 365. On the smartboard I have access to all the programs, and can show parents all the cool things the technology can do to help me make up an interesting, fun, AND content rich class.

It’s a far cry from when I would come in and write all the notes, as well as the Aim and Do Now on the chalkboard. I used to be covered in chalk dust by 8:45AM. To watch video I had to wheel in the cart and hope that the DVD player worked. In the late 1990’s I still used a VCR (young people reading this ask your mom).

Interestingly, I never get too deep into showing the technology to the parents. They like it, but they aren’t excited by it. You know what always gets them engaged?

Talking about how the get their children to obtain the discipline and literacy that will lead to success.

In other words, we talk about instilling the ethos of hard work and discipline among the youth.

The parents aren’t interested in any of the latest theories, nor are they interested in all the neat things the technology wizards have cooked up for us. They are interested in Old School values, as they know that they are the real keys to success.

If you could have been there on Parent Night (and some reading this were there), you would have thought it was 1919, not 2019.

What’s even more incredible is that ‘hard work and discipline’ costs $0.00. There are no educational consultants, school bureaucrats, or trendy opinion makers who preach ‘hard work’. None of the outside agencies or consultants brought in have ever spoken about getting students to work hard and accept accountability. The disconnect between the School Industrial Complex and the parents of today is impossibly large. Every parent I spoke with talked about work, concentration, and literacy. All of them want me to give their child morehomework.

When I tell my students that last part they pitch a fit.

Tom Sowell wrote an essaycalled “The Education of Minority Children”. In it there is a quote I always place in the front of the room. When he analyzed successful schools in poor (mostly minority) districts, people often asked him: what was the secret? How did those schools do it? His answer: “The secret is that there are no secrets, unless work is a secret. Work seems to be the only four letter word that cannot be used in public today”.

You can only imagine the names Sowell has been called for writing things like that. I’ve found that the old ways, what we used to call values, are still coveted by parents.

They want success for children, and they know what it takes to get it. Oddly, often those who get paid good money to engender success among young people, don’t.