Living to Educate

My family and I relocated to Georgia from Littleton, Colo. We began our Georgia journey from Dunwoody to the South Cobb area. Currently, I am at a stay-at-home mom and wife. I have a 20-year-old son, 12-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son.  In addition to my fulltime status as a mom/wife, I am also a fulltime volunteer for one of the best national children’s advocacy organizations in the country–PTA. I hold numerous titles/positions within the organization.  I teach, advise and coach parents and schools leaders about advocacy and family engagement with the belief that if parent citizens know how to navigate the system, they are able to help their children perform better in school. This organization has fueled my love of learning by allowing me to enter into the secret society of the public education system in America.

First, let me state that I have been educated in the United States and in the West Indies, and when you are in school in the United States, you take the differences for granted. So as an adult and through my children, I have seen schooling from different perspectives. 

I, like many parents believed when they first had children, thought I understood how school worked. Parenting and schooling was supposed to be easy: take the kids to the bus stop, make sure they had their homework done, attend a parent-teacher conference meeting, perform volunteer hours, and when that is all said and done, they graduate from high school. That is what a responsible parent or citizen does.

I had no idea that there was a school protocol, property tax-funded schools, (some) schools lacking textbooks, parents may not like the principal, a meeting called a “school board meeting,” (not my favorite thing) and lastly, social promotion.

I learned about social promotion when my oldest was in first grade and I realized that he was not performing well in his classes. Actually, let me not fluff it, he was not performing well because he thought school was an elementary school happy hour.  By the end of the school year, he needed to be held back. But the school had a different perspective. It was called... social promotion. I was unaware of the concept that kids were not to be held back based on performance but promoted because of the fear of being picked on by his peers. That was my school 101…

When I arrived in Georgia and I saw the discrepancies, I was set ablaze to find an answer to the WHY question of public education.  I want to use my experiences through the public education journey and life with a twist. So look for my next column as I discuss the school board meeting process.

If you have any questions, comment and I will follow up. I can also be reached at kg2educate@gmail.com.