My thoughts after 15 years as an SPS parent.
I think the fundamental thing many parents in Seattle Public Schools want to know is this: Why is there pushback when we want to make schools better?
When we ask schools to offer more advanced classes? Produce better educated students? Why do public schools have a ceiling? Why is the denial of stronger academic options treated like something we should all just understand – to back off and let things languish because that’s the way things are?
Why have we been told in the past by school board members that we need to leave for private schools if we want better options?
Do all of these progressive and Democratic-leaning school board members and school administrators actually believe that free and public schools should offer less than fancy, pay-to-play private schools?
That richer students should get more? And where did they acquire such a backward, caste-system view of public schools?
I get it – school funding comes from the government. But then why as a society, the people who elect the government — do we all want less for the kids? What does this say about Seattleites? About Americans?
Yes, some kids are horribly stressed out or depressed and anxious. And they should take it easy until they can start healing.
But why are we treating all kids like they have to have a break too, to protect any possible mood issues or slightly uncomfortable obstacles before they even happen? Are we just giving our students an easy ride through high school because they’re too fragile to do what kids over in Bellevue are doing? Why aren’t we promoting resilience and challenges?
If your kid is nonacademic, then great. You do you; go be nonacademic! But there is still a certain amount of stuff teens need to know to become functioning adults in society, even with – especially with – the advent of AI, so we’re going to have to go ahead and make sure they all learn that, OK?
If your kid is behind in school and feels bad about other kids learning more, knowing more, and can’t keep up, that’s unfortunate but those kids should know they are fine — also and capable of more. Let’s make sure that we provide the framework to push those kids upward and give them more opportunities to gain knowledge, confidence and skills – and that we as a society also don’t commit the crime of just pushing kids through school with the mere labels of success (graduation, good grades, etc.) when these labels have not been earned.
Let’s help struggling kids get up to the level we say they’ve reached. This should not be a controversial idea. There is nothing wrong with students learning at their own pace, but there is something very wrong with a school system not teaching that kid, pushing them through to graduation and calling it a smashing success.
Let’s stop slandering parents who seek more advancement for their kids in elementary, middle and high school. Yes, believe it or not, all of Seattle’s hyper-educated big tech, medical and engineering-adjacent parents might actually know something about what’s needed to succeed academically today.
Can schools please not summarily dismiss every parent who makes a suggestion as a wack job and a crank?
And let’s stop pretending that kids who are falling behind can never catch up. The first way to do that is for the district to stop giving up on struggling kids and intentionally help them catch up. Help them. Clean up problems caused by bad early reading programs and unnecessarily confusing math curricula in the early years.
No one is fooled when a school system prevents hyper-achievement at the top to make the students who are lagging look like they’re less behind. We all know that’s nothing but smoke and mirrors. Stop giving up on the need to keep educating students who are already successful. And keep the promise SPS made to educate the students who aren’t having an easy time too.
Finally, teaching to the middle just isn’t cutting it anymore, SPS. Try harder. Do better. We still have faith in you.
This article is an opinion piece (Op-Ed) and reflects the views of the author. We encourage thoughtful debate and welcome a range of viewpoints. Readers who wish to submit their own Op-Ed for consideration can do so by emailing [email protected].
The editorial has been reposted with permission from the The Spiral Notebook blog.Read it and other articles and editorials online at jilloconnor.substack.com.
