My principal would not let a visiting family view the pre-k rooms for no reason and when asked about the curriculum, could not articulate what we do! Needless to say that family said they didn't think this school was for them. It was a family who is part of the gentrification in the neighborhood. We lost a chance at some diversity.
I have heard from other teachers anxious to see more families diversify their public school. Many dictatorial principals fear outspoken, activist parents who might raise questions just as the don't want older experienced teachers who might question their fiats.
One of the major failures of BloomKlein has been the handing over of total power over schools to principals and the weakening of the union which served as a check and balance. We need checks and balances in schools, not only in a system of mayoral control.
I was such a parent, though I did enroll my kid for awhile and experienced a principal like that. My suspicions were confirmed a few years later when I worked at a school where two coworkers had come from that school and told me the principal definitely wasn't interested in catering to the neighborhood's newer residents.
ReplyDelete