where I share my thoughts on public education and the role of the mother

I want to warn you that this is a longer sort of post. You might need some background music and a cup of tea (one of your larger mugs). If you're willing to be patient and read my whole thing, you're going to have to settle in. Thank you ahead of time.

This being an election year and all, there's been a lot of talk about American education (Obama and Romney), changing expectations for schools, teachers, and by extension, students and their parents.

In my years as a public high school teacher, I've thought a lot about what makes education "work". Now a parent of a school-age child, I have some new perspectives on what I want from all that time spent away from home.

I now understand - in a way that only the parents of school-going children can - that lioness instinct, whose expression varies from mother to mother, and that sometimes gets (not always fairly) passed on to the teacher.

But, wait. This post is not all In Defense of Teachers. Though I could write that one too. But I'd title it, "In Defense of Teachers" - not what's at the head of this post.

{I'd start that one off reminding everyone that while they should rightly expect teachers to have discretion and wisdom, and to be exemplars and role-models to their students, it's only the crudest among us who ever hold their neighbors' jobs over their heads with the bitter rejoinder, "I'm paying your salary!". I'm so glad we're not like that, aren't you?}

Today, I want to share my thoughts on education as a political issue, and the obvious solution that not one politician - not Obama, not Romney, not Chris Christie at the RNC who kept repeating that easy catchphrase of "holding teachers accountable" - ever says.

It's not making schools compete for money based on standardized test scores. It's not rewriting curriculum; creating a national standard; eliminating teacher tenure; telling teachers to write their lesson plans a certain way; or making them sit in faraway classes for a set number of hours in order to keep their certification. It's not upending everything so that we all have to learn a new way to add.

And it's definitely not leaving it up to bureaucratic movers and shakers who understand lots about what would theoretically work in education and very little about what actually does.

But I will give credit where credit is due. They, as we, have identified what we do want: higher academic outcomes; a lower drop-our rate; teachers dedicated to their craft and their students; honest accountability from all parties; community participation; and parental support.

We recognize that things need fixing, but we're not quite sure how to go about it. So when politicians get up on the podium and start firing off their educational rhetoric, we listen. We all agree that there's a problem, we all want a solution, and so we applaud when they dangle their shame-and-blame solution in front of us.

And so it goes.

What I desperately wanted someone to acknowledge this election year is how screwed up our culture has become.

How teachers and schools, once well-respected members of society and revered institutions, have become political pawns.

How our culture teaches that the pinnacle of success is your own reality show, that cheating is merely a means to an end and other unsavory values, a list to which you can probably add.

Once upon a time, parenting was noble. It was respected. Doing it right was a point of pride. Sadly, the entire endeavor has now been diminished to mere corollary, what one does when not doing other things. 

What's missing from the public discourse on education, which currently and almost gleefully derides public school teachers (likely because of some justified complaints about teachers' unions, which in the US are de facto closed-shop organizations that sometimes veer wildly from the agenda of  our children's classroom teachers) is a true understanding of the dilemma.

If we all simply stood up and acknowledged that our culture has become so time-pressed and values disoriented, we could start to solve some of the problems that manifest during our children's school days.

If we all stood up not just for teachers, but for our hard-working long-commuting families, we might start looking for ways to support - rather than fresh ways to blame - each other.

If we did more work at home - teaching responsibility, discipline, diligence, and steadfastness - the outcomes we so desire - academic, even worldly success - would, with the help of the dedicated teachers in our communities, become reality.

More than ever, schools are expected to do more with less - less financial support, less moral support. And parents, sitting shell-shocked on Back To School Night, are racking their brains trying to reconcile these more rigorous expectations with the demands of 21st century family life.

We all need a break, but in order to get there, we need some reminders.

I've talked to other mothers (in my group, I am the only teacher) and other teachers (most who are also mothers) and we all agree that as important as teacher accountability, is parental responsibility, the recognition of the home as one's first school.

More than any other, it's on this point that we need to work hardest, since it's how we raise up our children that always has been and will forever be the only way to fundamentally change what many see as our failing educational system.

Mothers, we can make a difference. And you don't have to be a joiner (I'm not) to do it. It starts and ends in the home.

Did I just state the obvious?

Ladies, let's talk - civilly and in the comments below. I'll see you there.

P.S. Of course you know that I am not saying I ever have been, am, or ever will be a great teacher and/or mother (let alone wife, home cook, daughter, sister, person). I am simply sharing my thoughts, which you might consider misguided, and if so please don't hesitate to tell me. All I ask is that you are polite (I can take almost anything said nicely).