Can you imagine allowing your adolescent, or younger, child make critical decisions concerning the running of your household?  How about having them evaluate your parenting, cooking, cleaning, or any other domestic work that you do and they don't.  No!

 

So my question to you is this, why would you want to have a teenager involved in the design of their curriculum or in the evaluation of the teachers? 

 

The argument to involve them in the curriculum design process poked its way into our local school system by use of the Baldridge process.  This process is used in large companies to gather information and ideas concerning the improvement of all aspects of a production process or a service provided to customers.  By gathering information from all portions of  the workforce, it is thought that, the process will be improved and the workers will all become happier.

 

When I heard that this was the way that our school system was going I was wondering... who were the groups?  Building services, cafeteria, PTA, booster?  Who?  The four groups involved would be the administration, the teachers, the parents, and the students.  So you have two groups of people who know little to nothing about the operation of a school involved in a round table with two who are.

 

I am not a surgeon.  I do not feel qualified enough to sit down with a surgeon and give him advice on how to run his operating room.

 

What grinds my gears the most about this is that parents are actually pushing for the involvement of their know-nothings in what they are taught.  This shows me that the old adage about an apple not falling far from the tree holds true.  By having this thought that "empowering" a young person to choose what they are taught will have a benefit shows the ignorance of the parents.  Fifteen year old kids don't know whats best for them.  If they did they wouldn't need parents.

 

The only thing that this would do is to erode the already crumbling wall of authority that teachers now hold.  If their statures drop any further the students will be teaching the classes with the teachers acting as referees.  I know I am exaggerating, but only a little bit. 

 

Here is a hypothetical to you.  Lets say that your son is a high school sophomore.  He hasn't taken Physics as of yet, but he is going to sit on a Baldridge team and decide what the major thematic units for this upcoming class should be.  How can he be an informed participant in this discussion?  Presumably he hasn't been exposed to this subject matter prior to this.  I see no constructive input this child can offer.

 

One of the parents introduced an idea to have high school students evaluate their teachers.  The evaluations wouldn't be used as a meterstick for their performance, it would just be nice to allow the students to express themselves.  GARBAGE!  I can see the constructive criticism that would come out of this.  Nasty epithets, ad hominem attacks, and overly emotional ratings would abound in these evaluations.  Students that have issues with teachers should voice them privately, face-to-face with the teacher to iron out whatever differences that there may be.  Saving your vitriol for an anonymous evaluation, especially when you have no constructive background on pedagogy or classroom management, would serve no purpose. 

 

Here's an idea for the evaluations.  How about the students write them and the parents of the students have to read them word for word in front of the entire staff, unedited.  I am sure that Mr. Jones would be so proud to read where his little darling had called his gym teacher a derrogatory term.

 

Parents.  Kids can be very smart.  Some can even understand the underlying meaning in everyday life.  But the majority of them don't know crap from crisco.  Students need to learn what is being taught to them.  Their input in an official process is neither needed nor constructive.  You are not doing them any favors by having them decide if learning the Pythagorean theory is necessary.