Will mom & dad make the grade?-report cards for parents

[underpants]

Mayor L. Douglas Wilder wants the city to grade them regularly starting in September.

He envisions giving parents marks on everything from their involvement in schools to their children's attendance.

Wilder has not yet settled on a specific grading plan, whether it will be A's through F's or a point system. Nor has he determined the cost of administering the new program. He is planning to include funding for it in his proposed budget for next fiscal year.


Wilder's idea isn't entirely new. A parental involvement checklist goes out to parents in Lebanon, Pa., and Chicago Public Schools considered the idea several years ago but never implemented it system-wide. Some Chicago schools issue checklists to parents, a spokesperson said.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031781372737

[Ilsa]

1. Shit. Are they going to put monitors in their homes

to make sure they are reading to them at night? Feeding them right? Not keeping them up too late? What about the parent who isn't involved with PTA, but has to commute 90 minutes each way to keep the bills paid? Do they get extra points for effort?

Another bullshit idea from govt officials who think they have a mandate run people's lives.

Checklist? Okay. Report card? I wouldn't even bother looking at it.

[Tux]

3. Weird idea

I can see getting parents involved if they have time but increasingly, leisure time is fading away especially for those with kids and low income jobs. If mom and dad have to work 50 hours each to pay mortgage, bills, food, etc and little Joe can't get enough attention since the parents are working to keep him fed and provide a home, are they going to get F's despite the fact they don't have time for PTA meetings?

[delilah]

2. Yanno....

Some of ARE single parents out here. I am very concerned that policies like this could be used as a way to discriminate against those of us without the financial ability or willingness to be stay at home moms.

I feel that creepy feeling I usually get when I see a veiled plot to further the conservative right wing agenda of all women being barefoot and subservient.

Oh, and if they want to grade me, they can expect a report card in return. We will be paying particular emphasis to the swastika drawn by my son's classmate and handed to him, which garnered ZERO response from the school's teachers or administrators.

Please note: my son is jewish.

Yeah, no kidding. Wanna talk about grading again??

[Kber]

4. In this current environment of moral absolutism

this idea, which sounds OK on the surface, makes me a bit nervous. I recently had a bit of a run in with some polling / media watch group - don't remember the name but it included things like "family" "values" and "morality".

Anywho - once the "poller" established that we did have grade school kids in the house, she asked if I was "outraged" by the sexually explicit material in TV. You know, racy shows like "Gilmore Girls" and some of the "unplugged" cartoons they show after 11 pm on the cartoon network.

I told her that, no, I rather enjoyed those shows. "But what about your son?" she asked, appalled. I explained that we 1) enforced a strict bedtime because otherwise he goofs off in school and 2) monitor CLOSELY what he watches and 3) spend more time reading or playing board games or other family activities than watching TV anyway. "Well, what if he's at a friend's house?" Well - what if? I know all of his friend's parents and trust their judgment and parenting ability. "And when he gets older and I can't watch his every move?" Well, it's my job to instill my values in him at a young age and besides, if at 12 or 13 he wants to watch the Gilmore Girls, well, I guess that would be OK with me, even if it is a little dorky.

By the end of the conversation, this woman was pissed - screaming really. I was firm, but polite, that I thought it was my responsibility as a parent to decide what is and isn't appropriate for my kid and to enforce it. You'd think I was drinking whiskey and playing poker rather than apple juice and playing tri-ominos (teaches strategy and math btw - not that she cared).

So I guess my point is that, in today's culture, who decides what "good" parenting is. I mean there are some obvious things, but in the Gray areas - am I a good or bad mom for letting my son watch Spongebob. What about if I watch it with him? What if I laugh? How about "Ed, Edd and Eddy" - a show I have banned for no other reason than I think it's too stupid to be tolerated. Am I depriving him of some critical cultural touch point like my mother did when she banned the Dukes of Hazard? What about Sunday school? During wrestling season he's going to miss a few days because tournaments are on Sundays - is it more important to go to school every week, or to show up and support the team? And to I get points for discussing the political landscape as honestly and fairly as I can, or do I get demerits for raising a budding democrat? And about school - I am not terribly involved compared to some of my friends, but making brownies for the Halloween party just isn't my thing. Doesn't mean I don't talk to my kid about his day, his lessons, etc.

I have a hard enough time grading myself in these areas. How is a stranger going to do it in a way that would remotely helpful or useful?

edit for gawd awful spelling - now how am I supposed to raise a kid when I can't even spell for Pete's sake!

[Warpy]

5. Raising wages would accomplish more than silly checklists

and grades will do. What parents lack is TIME. Parents are exhausted from incresing their productivity statistics, doing more work over more hours with fewer people to share it for less pay.

Checklists will only add to the load of guilt that overworked parents are already carrying around.

[kcass1954]

6. I did my 17 years in school, and I'm done - no more report cards!

Besides, I'll flunk anyway. They're going to "expel" me right after I tell them to go f*** themselves.

I don't need anyone to "grade" my parenting skills. My 18-yr-old is a HS senior, decent grades, kind, well-spoken, respectful, never been in trouble either at school or with the police, lets me know where he's going and who he's with, not easily influenced by peer pressure, voted for Kerry in '04. Oh yeah - and he's a pacifist. Seems I've done a damn good job as a parent! I hope my 8-yr-old turns out just as well.

[Midlodemocrat]

7. How about allowing the parents to grade the schools?

Now, THAT, would be interesting.

[SmokingJacket]

8. First time I get a "report card" judging my parenting...

I'm heading for the principal's office to say "Bite me."