The Tacoma News Tribune reports that more and more often, Puget Sound high-school students are using instant messaging and their mobile phones to spread rumors and gossip, but that there's an upside when the news is regarding threatened mayhem with guns. Word gets out quick, kids stay home from school, fearing a massacre. Sometimes, as recently in Puyallup and on Key Peninsula the rumors reflect actual dangers, in other instances, as in Federal Way they do not. (More on all three cases in first link, above). How to navigate the high-stakes minefield? The TNT:
When Clover Park High School was locked down last Monday, parents knew about it before reporters. Parents also knew that the entire student body was to be sent home while police investigated, before the students knew enough to set off rumors, spokeswoman Kim Prentice said. The rapid dissemination was possible through a system called Connect-Ed. The Web-based, subscription service sends automated calls to parents of every student in the school. It can send the message by e-mail, if parents prefer, and it knows whether to deliver calls in Spanish or English. Messages can be broadcast to the entire district, or be focused on the parents of a particular school, class or bus route....Connect-Ed, owned by The NTI Group Inc. of California, automatically calls parents when students are absent. It knows whether they pick up, too.It cost $10,000 to start up and the fee is $3.50 per full-time equivalent student per year. In Clover Park, that’s about $40,000 per year. It’s also used to notify parents about events. Student attendance in school and parent participation at school functions has improved, DeMyers said. As a secondary benefit, the instant dispatches are perfect in emergency situations, she said. In the case of the high school lockdown, parents were familiar with the message system and knew that it came directly from the principal.
An enterprise-wide solution that fits the times. Peachy. But the hairy stuff always seems to be in public schools. In private schools, the kids are there to learn and the staff is empowered to enforce discipline. The parents do not need robo-calls to be reminded about events, notified of truancy, or updated about a lockdown or massacre threat because those dysfunctionalities just aren't there, on the whole. So who is responsible for the dysfunctionality in public schools? Society? Capitalists? Whites? Republicans? Or voters, parents, teachers unions, and cowed school boards and administrators? High-tech solutions to threatened gun rampages or lockdowns in public schools are ultimately a band-aid on a hemorrhage.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 22, 2006 05:20 PM | Email ThisHandouts sent home with students often miss their target (parents). Mailing is expensive and can take days. Our local schools use the phone system A LOT to make announcements of school events, student activities, concerts, band and sports practices and much more. It works really well for the purposes for which it is used here (Spokane). It is common for us to receive announcements up to 4 times per week, even on the weekends, sent via telephone.
These announcements are very effective at connecting families to the schools. More family involvement creates a better school environment. Students whose parents are involved in the school - even if only to attend activities or open houses - do better in school.
I have volunteered in our local public schools. This past year, close to 100% of the students I worked with came from broken homes - and lived with single parents (often 2 or 3 sets of parents during the week) or lived in the local equivalent of an orphanage. The experience was a huge eye opener for me and I fully intend to be back next year. I was grateful that I could offer positive experience to a great many kids.
I could sit around and whine that public schools have problems but I chose instead to stand up and make a difference. Not just as a volunteer, but I also serve on two internal district committees. Sure I disagree with a lot of stuff that has gone on, but whining is easy. Actually coming up with workable solutions is hard work.
I'll say again - this past year was a huge eye opener for me in better understanding the enormous challenges that so many students face, from elementary school through high school, that are way outside the scope of the classroom. Broken families, high school students forced to work long hours to help their families' budgets.
(Note: I am not a teacher. I work in tech and am currently starting a small business with a partner.)
Laziness to the max for our tax dollars AND our tuition dollars.
Posted by: Cheryl on May 22, 2006 07:58 PMNewsflash - private high schools have all the same problems as public high schools: drugs, alcohol, behavior issues. The old joke is the private school's drugs cost more.
There is also a lot of good going on in both private and public high schools.
If the best you can come up with is to criticize a district who is trying to address the issue of communication, it is time to go back to the drawing board. The template isn't working.
Posted by: Janet S on May 22, 2006 10:35 PMOne of the problems with education today is the impersonal nature of communication. Parents don't know their children's' teachers and teachers don't know the parents. There is a value to this type of technology in closing the 'communication gap' that develops in large communities where 'knowing your neighbor' is almost unheard of. If this type of communication brings parents closer to their children's education then I'm all for it and would gladly support a levy to pay for it.
On the other hand, the problems in public schools won't go away without systemic changes. Technology won't change a thing. Removing the unions from the education system would be a good start. Firing teacher who don't teach the material they're hired to teach would be a good next step. And, as always, allowing Christians to pray would make all the difference in the world. Removing the Bible from education just ripped the heart out of it. I say, put the heart back into it so that it will do what it really needs to do. It needs to build character in our future leaders, not build corruption in them.
Posted by: Republican (by default) on May 23, 2006 12:17 AMIn my opinion we are today reaping the reward of that kind of thinking.
Go ahead, scream about separation of church and state (not even in the constitution) all you want. Go ahead, scream about pantheisim and ignore the Judeo-Christian roots of our Nation.
Today, in our public schools, we have seaparation of moral values and students.
Posted by: MB on May 24, 2006 12:39 PM