On the stage of history, it takes tremendous achievement to be considered “remarkable.” Abraham Lincoln (preserved the union), Martin Luther King Jr. (fought segregation), Orville and Wilbur Wright (first in flight), Theodore Roosevelt (what didn’t he do?) — these are just a few truly remarkable men.
But here in Peoria, you can be “remarkable” by simply taking your child to school. One day. And it doesn’t even have to be your child, actually. Here’s the Journal Star’s explanation:
Peoria School District 150 is trying to get men involved in the education of the district’s students. It is launching an initiative called “1,000 Remarkable Guys,” in which men accompany children to school on Aug. 27, the first day back at classes.
“Remarkable” means “notably or conspicuously unusual; extraordinary” and “worthy of notice or attention.” So, evidently (and regrettably), adult male involvement in children’s education is so “conspicuously unusual” that the mere act of walking a child into the general vicinity of a classroom is now “worthy of notice or attention.”
They’re not asking these guys to help with homework, or to stay with the mother of their child, or to be a good role model in general, or any of the things that would have a real impact on these kids’ education. They’re simply asking some adult male relative to take the child to school the first day of classes. I find that neither remarkable nor effective.
Perhaps it would be better to emulate a program like this one in Baltimore, Maryland:
Here are some things the high school seniors have done:
At the beginning of the school year, they sponsored a “Teacher Appreciation” banquet. During Thanksgiving and Christmas, they fed hundreds of families and distributed donated gifts to area children. They mentor students at Windsor Mill Middle School to help them prepare for the transition to high school. They tutor each other and others who need help at school.
During a six-week leadership camp last summer, they painted bathroom stalls at the school, planted a garden at the building’s entrance, got pest control with the help of experts, plastered encouraging posters along the hallways and invested in combination locks for every locker so students could use them for storage.
Now that’s remarkable.
Tisk, tisk. Obviously, D150 is trying to do SOMETHING, and you want to argue semantics? Phuleeze. What’s your point? Stating “I find that neither remarkable nor effective” means you’re just another part of the problem. You must be so proud.
I emailed and signed up for it as soon as I was done reading, did you? It seems you’re looking for the end result with an initiative that’s just beginning. Nothing like killing a messenger, eh…but you’re right, Baltimore’s program looks appealing. However, did you notice the focus of the 15-year program was young adults instead of the father-figures D150 is targeting? Nothing like comparing apples to oranges.
Having lived in the fishbowl for many years, I am beginning to fatigue by the knee-jerk negativity offered by those who are so willing to shout from the soapbox, but never actually get their own elbows dirty.
Oh, I’m sure you’re the model community activist, one whom organizations like D150 can ALWAYS count on to be there…bleh.
Bob — thanks for the input. I’ll be willing to bet that you’re already involved in your child’s education, yes? That wouldn’t really make you the target for this initiative, would it?
I believe the goal of both programs is to increase student achievement and provide positive role models. Hence, I didn’t think it was comparing apples to oranges — just different ways of accomplishing the same goals.
Perhaps you’re right, though. Maybe hundreds of deadbeat dads will sign up and, after spending a half day at school, will decide to really get involved with their child’s (or niece’s or nephew’s or grandchild’s) education and it will have a big impact. I hope so.
As for knee-jerk negativity… well, yes. I am a blogger, after all. 🙂
St. Marks requires parents to be involved in school activities. They don’t get specific about dads. Maybe they should. Not that there is a shortage of active dads at St. Marks. If the parents choose not to get involved, they pay extra ‘fees’ in lieu of it.
Now.. the downside of that is that much of that involvement tends to be in fund raising and not in direct support of education ie like mentoring, tutoring, teacher support, etc.
C.J.
I must apologize for my earlier tone. I was out of line with my own knee-jerk response.
I’m sensitive because I care. I want, desperately, for men to be involved with their children. I want this community to stand behind its disadvantaged. I wish for the community to be a model of care. We get so isolated in our groups…
And, yes, I’m involved with my children. I’m curious to see how this pans out. I so hope this takes off and makes a difference, but I also recognize that a sustained effort will be needed. I hope D150 doesn’t try this in August, with possibly a poor turnout, and just bag it. The school year is long, and there has to be other opportunities to get men in the hallways.
And how about a common mission / vision statement from our community? One which comes from the ‘bowels’ of our community as Stephen Covey encouraged Peoria to do in 1994. Our community is like an ameba — a different direction at a different time of each day. Little cohesion and unity — a waste of resources of which the most important resource is people and their lives.
oh please. Sometimes great is the enemy of good. Not to say 150 can’t achieve greatness, but this is a positive start. Sometimes you must start small when it comes to goals…something actually attainable. I’d love to say this post was surprising…nope.
Interesting thoughts. When I first heard about this initiative I felt it was a good first step to planting the seeds in the minds of detached parents to participate more actively in their child’s education. The natural next step would be for the District to step the program up with increasingly greater expectations with an ultimate goal of achieving results similar to the Baltimore program CJ referenced in his initial post.
The frustration for District families is that often great ideas are not developed to the degree that they would make any notable impact. The perfect example is the “Every student, every child, every day” initiative which emphasized the importance of regular attendance. The initiative reaped a significant improvement in District-wide attendance rates. It was the very next year, however, that the District proposed, approved, (and later backed down on) shorter school days and weekly half-day student improvement days… Systemic mandated truancy.
In my opinion, the message that policy sent to District families and children destroyed any gains that had been made the previous year by the “Every student” initiative.
So although, I agree with Bob L’s comment in theory, I understand the frustration behind CJ’s post.
Ian says: “Sometimes you must start small when it comes to goals…”
Very, very small, apparently.
Ian also says: “Sometimes great is the enemy of good.”
I say that’s a cop out and a poor justification for low expectations. I’d love to say that Peorians aren’t satisfied with merely “good enough”… nope.
CJ: “knee-jerk negativity…” makes you a blogger, when I do it it makes me a prick. huh
BTW, it should be a requirement that a parent or parents show up to their child’s school X amount of time throughout the school year.
I think I’m just being realistic. How many parents show up to board meetings? I’m not talking about heated issues (Vespa and gang)…just day-to-day policy decisions that have an impact on their kids. Maybe 20 parents?
>CJ: “knee-jerk negativity…” makes you a >blogger, when I do it it makes me a >prick. huh
It’s all in the delivery, Em.
Oh now I feel better
The concept is a good one, however, there is no “plan” to ensure effectiveness and integrity. These initiatives Dist. 150 comes up with are done on the spur of the moment with no real plan. They need to choose 1 or 2 initiatives and stick with it. They never seem to stick to a particular program or initiative, they are always coming up with new ideas, quickly implementing, not following up, overloading administrators and teachers, then you never hear of the initiative again.
Rather than having the fathers drop off their kids at school… how about having them attend the Wednesday planning sessions?
Thank you Serenity…the problem with the present administration at 3202 Wisconsin is that they do not have a plan for many of their initiatives. The Manual Restructuring does have a plan, whether you agree or disagree the administration has a plan. However, for the Wacky Wednesdays there never was a plan. A perfect example is they went from shortening every day to proposing every Wednesday and now only a certain number of Wednesdays. And the calendar was just presented on their website Tuesday, August 5, 2008. A day after principals reported for the 2008-2009 school year. If you watched the school board meeting even after school board members asked for specifics the best answer was we are working on that. I feel sorry for parents who do not have access to computers…
I hope everyone who reads Peoria Chronicle goes to the District 150 Website and prints the hideously colored school calendar with the small asterisks. Are they going to print these color coded calendars for each students? Very expensive and time consuming. They have never printed them in color. By the way please call the Administration Building and ask for one of the full school calendars with all the back to school information. 672-6768
The “common planning” concept is a good one, but not at the expense of student contact time. The Dist. went against researched based stratigies on how to implement successful change.
If they would have followed research on how to implement successful restructuring/change, the “common planning time” initiative surely would not include lessening student contact time and would not have started until the 2009-10 school year.
How the Dist. implemented this initiative went against their set of core values. If they want people to acknowledge their core values they need to model the values themselves.
The calendar is a mess. Wait until the parents see it. But its the school buildings and the school secretaries that will feel the brunt of the mess. They will be spending alot of time trying to explain scheduling to parents and babysitting kids who do not get picked up at the correct time. Just wait.
Well stated. You are so correct that secretaries and schools will be the ones held responsible. That is why as many telephone calls that anyone can make to the administration building will help the secretaries in the school buildings immensely. Let the secretaries at 3202 help them out by trying to explain the unexplainable, color coded school calendar.