<p>Our school doesn’t do this, but this is precisely the kind of thing I’m going to go ballistic over once my kids are out of there. I’m also going to tell them that they need to up their game significantly in terms of attracting better schools to school visits. Yes, Virginia, there is more to life than Directional State U’s and the mediocre local private universities that dominate the visits. We don’t even have U of Chicago coming to visit, and here we are in the Chicago metropolitan area. I even made a point once to one of the GC’s about the flags and pennants that were in the room - all the directional state u’s and mediocre local privates. Really? You couldn’t be more aspirational? You couldn’t have thrown up a damn pennant for, I don’t know, Duke or Vanderbilt or Tulane or Oberlin or Georgetown or Amherst? You wouldn’t want anyone to actually think that people go more than 100 miles for college, you know. It just frosts me – and I’m glad that I’m on the twins-and-done plan.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the mentality of blaming the school because they do not publicize academics to your liking. If it is a public school, it is your school, so why not approach the administration and offer to publicize academic accomplishments for them? This is what our PTA, which is an organization of active and involved parents, does. They put on an Academic Awards Night, complete with press release and published newsletter, as well as a College Fair (with other high schools in the area) featuring hundreds of college reps, and more.</p>
<p>If you are not happy with how your school operates, then it is your job to go in and help change it. Otherwise you have no right to complain unless your offer is unreasonably rebuffed.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Bay’s comments were meant for me, but here’s an example: I had reviewed the school profile and based on excellent info I got from CC, had very specific, concrete suggestions on how to improve it to provide clearer information on the demographics and overall school offerings – which, for me, was personally relevant as I had kids who were going to be applying to schools that had never had applicants from our school (you know, all those uppity East Coast schools!). I took this to the head of guidance counseling with an offer that I would lead it (so as not to create burden) and was rebuffed. I have made numerous suggestions that they need to publicize such things as the Collleges that Change Lives or Eight of The Best College meetings – which come to a hotel ONE TOWN OVER every year – and gotten a “yeah, that’s nice, dear” response. I have suggested to them that they need to publicize the great summer programs for teens that are offered by Northwestern and U of Chicago – right in our back yard! – and gotten no response. Yes, I know putting up a brochure or announcing over the intercom that CTCL will be coming next week to the XYZ Hilton is so out of scope in your busy day. Gosh, and then you scratch your butts and wonder why the high school one town over places kids at far better schools - and that the kids in our school who get into the “better” schools are there because they had significant parental activism in the process. This is why, once my kids are out, I am going to open that proverbial can on them. Snobby on my part? Yes, absolutely. Don’t care. They could up their game easily with little effort.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you are talking about here. Your only other post on this thread said your school would not continue to submit honor roll names for publication in the paper.</p>
<p>^ yes but that was only one example. There were numerous ways in which academics were slighted in favor of athletics and I made a number of specific suggestions and offered to help. The administration had no interest in changing anything.</p>
<p>I would not doubt that a lot of others on this thread have also spoken to the school administrators and offered help and were also turned away.</p>
<p>PG,
I thought your complaints were that sports got too much publicity and academics not enough, and that your school didn’t attract enough variety in college rep visits. These are two areas that can be improved through parental involvement. You now seem to be addressing a multitude of deficiencies by your GC, and I think that is getting too far off-topic.</p>
<p>Does your school have a PTA-type organization? If so, that is what these groups do. They do not rely on the administration to change things or get things done, they do the work themselves, with the cooperation of the administration. Such as, please give me the Decathlon adviser’s name/winners of the science awards, etc… and with their permission we will submit the results to the paper and publish them in our own newsletter and submit it to the yearbook staff with a photo of the group, etc.</p>
<p>Having been a PTA board member (twice) I am familiar with what parent organizations do. I am also aware that the administration overrules the PTA and basically wants the parents to do fundraising and keep their mouths shut.</p>
<p>We are going off topic here and I am done with this thread.</p>
<p>I’m pretty pragmatic. I see / saw no need to annoy the principal by pointing out that every newsletter she sends out starts with an announcement of how a sports team did and then buried down the line would be a mention of, oh, yeah, we had some National Merit scholars or science fair winners. I don’t have a problem with both things being mentioned, but I think the primary purpose of a school is academics, and I think the leads should have always been the academic performance followed by EC and sports performance. But I really haven’t said that to the principal because quite frankly, I didn’t want to be known as “that mom” and have it held against me when my kids were still in the system. As for the variety in college rep visits, it’s part of an overall culture overhaul - there is little use in bringing in every top school in the country if the parents are still going to say “but I wouldn’t want little Johnny going out of state, teh Horrorz.” That’s something the school can certainly have influence in and open parents’ eyes to broader opportunities, but just getting in reps isn’t enough. <a href=“Nonetheless,%20no%20U%20of%20Chicago?%20%20That’s%20a%20crime%20when%20we’re%2045%20minutes%20away.%20%20In%20fairness,%20the%20val%20was%20deciding%20between%20U%20of%20Chicago%20and%20another%20school.”>i</a>* It’s an overall culture issue, which is why my plans to address it are at a) at the school board level, not the GC level and b) after my kids graduate and there are no repercussions.</p>
<p>I disagree with this somewhat (I think the primary purpose of high school is to prepare the students for adult life), but even if I agreed, there are plenty of ways to give a louder voice to academic achievement other than the principal’s newsletter. Why not offer to organize the display of posters, or do an all-school academic-acheivement update email, or an academic awards ceremony or write an article for the local paper, or propose a special segment at graduation, or see if the student government adviser will support an academic (rather than sports) rally, or see if the local chamber of commerce will sponsor a breakfast for the top students, etc. etc.? You don’t even need to address your criticism of the principal’s newsletter to bring more attention to academic achievement at your school.</p>
There’s an immature part of me that says: I shouldn’t have to. I shouldn’t have to tell a GC in the Chicagoland area that she might want to promote academic programs at offerings at 2 of the nation’s top universities that are in our backyard. I shouldn’t have to tell a GC that she might want to actually let the students know that CTCL (etc) are coming to town and promote attendance. Etc.
I promised my kids I wouldn’t be “that mom” that the administration cringes when they hear her coming, and that I wouldn’t hang around the school and be a pest, and I’ve held to that promise.<br>
Selfishly, I didn’t want to make too many waves when there was a chance that I’d then be known as the snobby, uppity mom and then it could be held against them when it came to letters of recommendation and the like.<br>
I’d personally rather address it at a school board level than at the indiv hs level. (Our school district encompasses 2 high schools.)</p>
<p>Our local newspaper is basically a weekly homage to the public high school athletic program. You would think that some of these kids are ready to be drafted by the Red Sox, such a big deal is made about their athletic prowess. Meanwhile, the same school’s valedictorian goes unnamed. There is some focus on athlete-scholars, although it always seems that perhaps the scholar part is exaggerated. Part of this is institutional - the school clearly has a well-developed process for providing material for the paper, and part is cultural - people are interested in sports and they like to elevate athletes. </p>
<p>I recently asked a high school administrator about this, and he seemed to think that it stems from a pedagogical move in the 1950s or 1960s to not label some kids as “smarter” than others. In other words, if we make a big deal about smart kids, the other kids will feel “dumb” and not try as hard. </p>
<p>The real problem occurs when kids and their parents have the mistaken idea that sports will be their ticket to a college education and a career. For some, this will be a bitter disappointment. Many of these students would be much better served by focusing on academics and improving the skills that will actually make a difference in life. How well Billy can hit the ball is considerably less important than how he does in math, when it is more likely that he’ll get a job as an accountant than as a major league ball player.</p>
<p>I know it is a hard pill for some to swallow, but the lessons learned from playing a sport in high school can be way, way more valuable than getting an “A” in Geometry (never mind that there are plenty of students who easily excel in both athletics and academics, but some people don’t like to acknowledge that either).</p>
<p>I don’t hold it against the local newspaper for printing more articles about sports–honestly, that’s probably what people in the community are more interested in reading about.</p>
<p>But it’s obvious that schools do more or less good jobs in highlighting academic achievements and opportunities. My kids’ school does a pretty good job with this, but there are gaps. For example, nobody tells the kids much about contests, like the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards–even though there are a lot of them who could benefit. And the guidance counselors are overwhelmed, so what they do is spotty.</p>
<p>At my local high performing HS, the kids know who is getting the better grades in the AP classes, etc. They know how valuable this is. They know other athletics is more likely fleeting, and less valuable.</p>
<p>This is the common old saw, but it has a few flaws. </p>
<p>There are lots of benefits for students who participate in sports, theatre, academic clubs and such. That’s not the point. Students who spend five to seven days a week at a sport have little time left for academics. The rigors of varsity athletics leaves little time for anything else. Sure, this may benefit the very tippy top athletes, or the few exceptional students who can juggle both, but many students fall short of their potential in academics.</p>