This forum is dedicated to allowing parents, teachers, advocates, and residents of South Dekalb County to actively engage each other to share ideas that would initiate positive change for South Dekalb County. We promote working as a collective to support the success of all Dekalb County public schools, neighborhoods, and residents that are predominantly in Lithonia, Decatur, Stone Mountain, Ellenwood, Clarkston, and Southeast Atlanta.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Dekalb County School System
What can we do as residents to take charge and fix the Dekalb County School System, especially on the south side?
In my opinion, the biggest issue is parent involvement. The reason why the schools on the "other" side of town do so well is because the parents really get behind the schools. It used to be that way with us, but then some parents just started leaving it up to the teachers, the tv, the internet, and the radio to raise their kids. This website is a good start to bring up our community.
Parents CAN'T become involved when there is a high rate of single parent households and mothers have to work.. It is very difficult to work 40 hours a week.. from 8 to 5 in hours of traffic and expect to make meetings that are held before 4pm without risking your job... And even if afterwards It will be exhausting to work then attend meetings.. and when you have more than one child in several schools, combined with picking them up it can become logistically impossible ... The real problem is work arrangements.. the children who have parental involvement are married... have support from extended family.. or flexible work schedules... To help parents be present in our children's lives we need to support organizations that support legitimate work from home careers.. that offer more understanding faculty who will are willing to meet on weekends.. or at least have a teacher assistant meet on weekends.. or at least a phone conference on weekends.. things like that... and the quota for time spent AT the school needs to be less emphasized than the quota for time spent WITH the child working on certain things because realistically it becomes like your third job... and if you have more than one child, there is logistically little one can do...
i feel you Sis K, so who do we go to to make it easier for single parents? Is there something we could do to keep fathers with their children. It's a certain culture that's being permeated. That's a long term goal, i guess, but we should work on that too... In the short term, what do feel is the best way to address parent accountability? I thought about trying to work with the churches in the area...
Yeah, but Berean has activities for the young kids. that cool. but we need something for the teenagers too. Plus not everybody in AV goes to or knows about Berean... Most black churches (that I know of) in South Dekalb don't do much for the surrounding community... :(
5 comments:
In my opinion, the biggest issue is parent involvement. The reason why the schools on the "other" side of town do so well is because the parents really get behind the schools. It used to be that way with us, but then some parents just started leaving it up to the teachers, the tv, the internet, and the radio to raise their kids. This website is a good start to bring up our community.
Parents CAN'T become involved when there is a high rate of single parent households and mothers have to work.. It is very difficult to work 40 hours a week.. from 8 to 5 in hours of traffic and expect to make meetings that are held before 4pm without risking your job... And even if afterwards It will be exhausting to work then attend meetings.. and when you have more than one child in several schools, combined with picking them up it can become logistically impossible ... The real problem is work arrangements.. the children who have parental involvement are married... have support from extended family.. or flexible work schedules... To help parents be present in our children's lives we need to support organizations that support legitimate work from home careers.. that offer more understanding faculty who will are willing to meet on weekends.. or at least have a teacher assistant meet on weekends.. or at least a phone conference on weekends.. things like that... and the quota for time spent AT the school needs to be less emphasized than the quota for time spent WITH the child working on certain things because realistically it becomes like your third job... and if you have more than one child, there is logistically little one can do...
i feel you Sis K, so who do we go to to make it easier for single parents? Is there something we could do to keep fathers with their children. It's a certain culture that's being permeated. That's a long term goal, i guess, but we should work on that too... In the short term, what do feel is the best way to address parent accountability? I thought about trying to work with the churches in the area...
Berean Church on Young Rd has stuff going on... but i don't know what... Maybe they can help...
Yeah, but Berean has activities for the young kids. that cool. but we need something for the teenagers too. Plus not everybody in AV goes to or knows about Berean... Most black churches (that I know of) in South Dekalb don't do much for the surrounding community... :(
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