I am very divided in this choice issue.
YES: I say "yes" because education is a free public service and it should be a choice in our free country. It is good for parents to have a variety of choices to educate their children. Everyone knows that all children are not the same, do not learn the same, etc. Having a choice of going to a charter school, private school or a public school should be the parents choice. Some of these schools might offer something else that the parent would like to imcorporate into their children's lives - ex: religion (Mary's presentation explained the religious aspect as does Amy's teaching experience), character education (offered mostly as an official course in charter school's) and down to the little things like uniform.
NO: I think that sometimes having a such a big choice in education can lead to the parents jumping their children around. In my experience, I have had parents enroll their children and if they don't like something about the school then they take their children somewhere else, and then if they don't like that schooll they have brought them back. One family moved their children five times in one year. How can that child learn? The main reason I found why parents move their children was that there were family problems at home and as soon as someone in the school caught on or started inquiring, then the children were taken out of that school. Another problem with all these choices, according to the Plain Dealers when schools like the Cleveland Academy of Math, Science and Technology or the International Preparatory School shut down in the middle of a school year, their students who get dumped on the curb and have to transition back into the public schools.
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I agree with your opinion on how choice can be considered negative when some parents move their kids from one school to another and then possibly back again. It's one thing to have choice, but another entirely to uproot a child in the middle of a school year. Of course there are circumstances where it is for the best interest of the child to go elsewhere, but if it is done repeatedly then the child will not only have a hard time academically, but also socially. It is the parents' responsibility to know what environment is best for their child, and having the choice between public or Catholic/private and charter schools provides many to choose from, but they must make informed and thoughtful decisions.
ReplyDeleteAdelle, I can also see the down side of having so much choice in the aspect that people move their children too often. You stated that they move them due to family problems, which I know does happen. But more often I have seen parents get upset over one small thing, like their child got a 'B' or they weren't greeted by every teacher they saw on a given visit in the school and get mad and pull their children. This is a case where having alternative options teaches that parent and the child that when they have a problem the solution is to throw a fit and run instead of coping and working the problem out.
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