Educating BabyRat

The school that we've been sending BabyRat to is pretty interesting, not only do they have uniforms but the director enforces the dress code strictly by fining non-conforming parents. I found this out because WifeRat was having a little trouble following the dress code rules. WifeRat says that she follows the rules, but that's total BS; she follows the rules when she agrees with them, but when she disagrees with them then the rules are stupid and arbitrary, the rules are made to benefit capitalists, the rules prop up the penisocracy, the rules are anti-feminist, and so forth.

Coming from a military background, I have a different feeling about uniforms than other people in my house. A uniform is a source of pride and signifies that you're a part of something that's bigger than you as an individual. Wearing a uniform shouldn't be about doing as little as you can and still being in compliance. It's about how sharp can I look? How can I show my pride in myself and my organization by looking as good as I can possibly look in this uniform? This isn't something that my Father ever said aloud, but it was how he lived his life. Neat, clean, and fastidious aren't dirty words.

I swear The Director of this place would have been an awesome drill instructor. She has the trim build and precise manner of every drill instructor I've ever met. The Director would look amazing in one of those Smokey the Bear hats too.

High standards and high performance is the norm at BabyRat's school and I fucking love it!! The assumption is that every kid there can learn and will learn. Of course that's a lot easier to accomplish when you have a self-selected group of families that obviously place a premium on learning and education.

Lately they've been teaching BR's class about consequences and decision making. We found out about this a couple of weeks ago when BR got home from school and started complaining that she didn't get afternoon snack. As is often the case when you're talking to a three year-old, you get the important parts of the story but necessary in the proper order and some important information gets left out entirely. All I could discern was that BabyRat didn't get a snack because some of the other kids took too long.

WifeRat is, of course, distraught. If there's one thing she insists on for BabyRat, it's that she gets to eat and drink when she's hungry and thirsty. So the Wife is all fired up when she hears this, but I calm her down and promise to ask what's up the next day when I drop the kid off at school. The next day I speak to LMS and she tells me that the kids serve themselves at snack and that if there's a problem like the one BabyRat described then those kids go last the next day.

I'm satisfied with this answer and don't give the situation too much more thought until BabyRat starts whining about not getting a snack again a day or two later. Again, I have to talk WifeRat down off the ledge and promise to get more information. This time when I speak to LMS I ask a few more pointed questions about the whole setup for snack time and I finally get to the heart of the matter: the kids have like an hour long time frame when they can get their snack. If they fuck around too long and wait until the end of snack time, then they're short. When I explained all this WifeRat she was mostly OK with it, but still didn't like the idea that BabyRat might not get her afternoon snack. Which is kind of ridiculous because she BRINGS THAT LITTLE HUNGRY HEIFER SOMETHING TO EAT WHEN SHE PICKS HER UP.

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School Dropoff

Dropping BabyRat off at school is always interesting. I never know what to expect day-to-day. Some days she's pumped up and wants to listen to music on the drive to school, when we get there I get a perfunctory hug & kiss, a brief, "'bye Daddy" and she's gone. Other days she's not feeling it and we have to have a brief snuggle in the car before we head in to start the school day.

Today she was asking to watch TV on the way to school. Of course I said, "No." And firmly explained that we don't watch TV in the car unless we're on a long trip. BabyRat tried to protest, but was quickly cut off and moved on to whining about not having a snack on the way to school. "I'm hungry," she wailed as we pulled onto the interstate. By the time we got to school the Doodler had gotten herself all worked up, so we chilled in the car for a minute and she calmed her little ass down.

As soon as we into the school building BabyRat takes off. So after stuffing all of her gear into her cubby and filling out the sign-in sheet I go to find BabyRat for a last goodbye.

I briefly speak with BR's teacher (we'll call her Little Miss Sunshine 'cause she's like a little blond kewpie doll) about BabyRat's concern that she didn't have snack yesterday. LMS explains that the kids have a self-serve snack and that if the earlier kids take too long the kids that are waiting don't get a snack. I love it! I mean I don't love that my kid didn't get a snack, but I like the system and the reasoning behind it that says they have to teach kids the consequences of their actions.

I get a hug & kiss & "Love you" from BabyRat and here I am at the coffee shop getting ready to take the car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated.

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Ludlow-Taylor PTA Meeting

So I've been trying to navigate the maze of DCPS to try and figure out where BabyRat is going to go to school when the time comes. So far I've been to Peabody and Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School (LTES) in an attempt to plot a course of action.

At this point we've more or less settled on Ludlow-Taylor, mostly because it's our in-boundary school and as a result we're trying to get involved with the school so I went to the PTA meeting last night.

There were a couple of other families there that I recognized from Stanton Park and the community meeting that we attended back in March at LTES as well as Mr. Weaver (the PTA President), Dr. Presswood (outgoing Principal), Dr. Govan (from DCPS Cluster 3), and several teachers for a total of about 15 people.

Here's where it starts to get interesting. I had received information that new members would be able to join at the beginning of the meeting, but when I arrived there was no one there to accept new members. Before too long someone showed up to collect money and so forth and we were able to join the PTA, but those of us without children were only able to join as members of the "Presidential Unit." Meaning that those of us without children in the school may, " . . . attend general PTA meetings, donate funds, help organize fundraising events, and volunteer your time; however, you may neither vote nor serve in official PTA positions such as committee chairpersons or Executive Board Members."

From what I was able to gather, this "Presidential Unit" thing was a change to the by-laws that was made at the last PTA meeting. A few new families signed up for the PTA and when I realized that all I had were Yuppie Food Coupons, one of the other Dads there just gave me $10 to join and said I could get him back later.

Finally the meeting started with the usual passing out of an agenda and officer's reports. The Treasurer made a point of saying that Presidential Unit membership dues are not a part of the general PTA fund, which led to some questions about exactly how that money would be used. There was a couple of minutes of back and forth and everyone seemed to be satisfied the result.

There was also some discussion about a Summer Program too. At the LTES Community there was a guy there who was pretty vocal in his distrust of Friends of Ludlow-Taylor. Let's call him "Vocal Parent" or VP for short. Having only seen VP once, I wasn't sure quite what his deal was but I found out last night. VP just seems to have a confrontational personality; he laid into someone who was merely reporting news that he didn't like. It definitely puts VP's performance at the community meeting into a different, less raced based, perspective. Although I have to say, every time I've been at a meeting at LTES VP has been there and that's not something I can say about a lot of the parents at that school. I think in the months and years to come VP will prove to be a powerful ally and/or opponent at various times.

Next up was Dr. Govan from DCPS Cluster 3. Dr. Govan was explaining the process for hiring the new principal of DCPS. There seems to be a lot of layers of bureaucracy in the search and hiring process, but that hardly comes as a surprise. There's a Local School Restructuring Team (LSRT) that places its chairperson on the search committee and then there are various groups of stakeholders who are represented as well. When Dr. Govan was giving more details on how questions are submitted and asked to the candidates, VP jumped into the mix. VP started grilling about whether or not the candidates knew the questions beforehand and generally was all over Dr. Govan about the whole process.

The process for selecting a new principal seems very HR driven; like the whole deal is set up solely to make sure the school system doesn't get sued and not to select the best candidates. One other interesting little tidbit is that the Chancellor is not obligated to select one of the candidates the search committee recommends. When asked about this Dr. Govan said, "When it gets to the Chancellor, anything can happen."

Keep the comments coming!!!

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Ward 6 Education Forum

So in keeping with my theme of reporting on Swiss Family Rat's struggles with finding a school, I bring you information on another school meeting. This one is for all of Ward 6 and is being sponsored by our council member Tommy Wells and our "State" Board of Education member Lisa Raymond.

Breakfast and babysitting services are being provided free of charge at the meeting site at Miner Elementary School. Agenda items and some boilerplate can be found by clicking here.

For those of you who can't be bothered to click, here's the pertinent info:

WHEN:
Saturday
April 26, 2008
10 AM – 12:30 PM

WHERE:
Miner Elementary
601 15th Street, NE

TO GET INVOLVED:
Contact Lisa Raymond at lisajraymond70 [at] yahoo [dot] com or call 202-316-5096 for more information.

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Community Meeting at Ludlow-Taylor (continued)

What Happened

I’m freaked out, I don’t know that I’ve ever been a part of a large-scale meeting or conversation that so accurately reflected our current national debate on race, class, education, and gentrification. All the usual suspects were there: well meaning White liberals who “just want to help”, outraged parents of current students (current stats show that NO children classified as “White” attend LT, take that for what it’s worth), and teachers & administrators caught between the two groups.

After Chancellor Rhee yielded the floor things heated up. A group called ‘Friends of Ludlow-Taylor’ (FoLT) seemed to be getting ready to start leading the meeting but they were interrupted by a parent of a currently enrolled student. He didn’t introduce himself to the crowd, but related an anecdote about getting the run around when he tried to find out more information about FoLT. The Gentleman went on at length, talking about his family’s fifty year roots in the neighborhood, gave a few thoughts on the meaning of gentrification, and finished up by saying, “They’re runnin’ game.”

People then moved into small (8-10 person) facilitated groups. I missed the initial setup while talking to someone, so I didn’t hear the instructions, but I ended up with an agenda and a page with the questions the facilitator was asking on it. The questions weren’t exactly meaningless boilerplate, but they didn’t seem to be much more than a jumping off point for how the people in attendance were going to remake the curriculum and programs of LT. At this point I kind of started wandering around a bit.

I moved over to another table to see how things were going there, the second facilitator seemed to have a slightly better grip on her group. At this second table I got a chance to speak with Dr. Pressler, the current principal of LT. Dr. Pressler struck me as a dedicated and committed educator, he explained to me that some sort of grant proposal had been submitted for him to sign off on that detailed an out of control school. Naturally no principal worth anything would allow themselves to be denigrated like that, so he refused to cooperate.

Judging from what I saw on the posters around the neighborhood, it looks like FoLT expected a new principal to be named at last night’s meeting, but that didn’t appear to be the case. However, WifeRat was still there when Chancellor Rhee was speaking about Dr. Pressler and came away with a different impression.

Analysis

It looks like a group of well intentioned parents got together outside of the regular channels of the school system to discuss how they could improve LT. It also appears that in their enthusiasm to try and raise the level of achievement at LT, these same parents neglected to include the current administration and parents in their plans. Understandably, the parents of the kids that already go to school there are a little pissed about a cabal of people coming in and attempting what could easily be interpreted as a coup.

Another thing that came out while I was talking to various people at last night’s community meeting was the fact that apparently Chancellor Rhee had met with FoLT and cancelled a meeting with the LT PTA. In her defense, Chancellor Rhee promised to correct that oversight (or diss, depends on who you ask) in the immediate future, but it’s a little strange that the Chancellor of DCPS would meet with a group of people whose children don’t attend a DCPS.

The one teacher I spoke to said that she and a couple of other teachers had been denied admittance to FoLT. I don’t know if it was an oversight or an intentional slight, but it strikes me as kind of strange that a group trying to help a school wouldn’t want input from the teachers at the school.

Now I'm finally ready to mention the big ol' elephant in the room: race. Let's be serious shall we? It's obvious that the members of FoLT are working off the standard model of participation (The Peace Corps, Teach for America, VISTA, etc.) for White people who "want to make a difference". Swoop in with the ink just barely dry on their diplomas, do some stuff that doesn't affect the structural/institutional forces that created the conditions they're trying to correct, and then leave feeling good about themselves. All the while completely ignoring the input and experiences of the people they're allegedly there to "help". I'll stop now because I'm enjoying this a little too much.

Don't think I'm going to let Black people off the hook, I'm not. When I asked if PTA meetings were usually this well attended (see the previous post) one of the parents I met during the table discussions clued me in to the fact that PTA meetings usually had less than five attendees. But the very idea that some White people were "trying to take over the school" had the parents of LT's current students crawling over each other to get to this meeting.

Conclusion

I'm not sure what the hell is going on at Ludlow-Taylor, it seems like everyone is mad at everyone who's not in their little clique. The one thing I saw that made me hopeful was that there were a lot of different people representing disparate interests and rather than folks just pitching a fit and storming out or throwing up their hands in frustration that their carefully laid plans had gone astray, people stayed and talked to one and other. Really, that was about all I could have hoped for out of that meeting.

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Community Meeting at Ludlow-Taylor

Whoa! I don't quite know where to begin.

About a week ago I was walking home from the park with BabyRat and saw a sign on a light post about this meeting at Ludlow-Taylor tonight. I was interested and excited because my last foray into finding a school for BabyRat didn't go so well.

All three of us (me, wife, and baby) went to the meeting and before we entered the school I noticed the sign outside said "PTA Meeting 5-8". When we got inside (a few minutes late) we were surprised to see DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee speaking before a crowd of 100-150 people. We arrived shortly before the question and answer period started, the floor was opened up, and the fireworks started.

Being a relatively new dad, I hadn't been to a DCPS Community meeting before but somehow I wasn't surprised that the quickly established theme of the meeting was gentrification and its discontents. Rhee did a good job of keeping things under wraps while she was answering questions and not getting too far off track, but after she left things took a turn for the worse.

I'm a little shot out after that meeting, I'll post a more thorough report later.

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Frozen Tropics: Interested in Ludlow-Taylor?

In keeping with my promise to try and keep folks up to date on the goings on surrounding getting BabyRat into some sort of DCPS 3 year-old program, here's a link to Frozen Tropics that has info about some sort of meeting. I actually saw a sign posted about this on my way home from the park today and plan to attend, but if anyone is actually reading this and looking for info I thought this might be helpful. Frozen Tropics: Interested in Ludlow-Taylor?

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