Friday Q & A
November 29, 2019
I hope all of you have had a wonderful week with family and friends. This will be our last edition of Q & A with anonymous submissions. As you read what was submitted for this week, I hope you will respect and understand this decision. This was created as an avenue for answering schoolwide questions, not a place for the adults in the community to lash out and disrespect the staff of KSE under a cloak of anonymity. It is seemingly difficult for some people to understand that decisions made by administration always include the input of the KSE staff and do not need to be vetted by the community at large. We do, however, value the input and direction from supportive members of our community who come with concerns and potential solutions as opposed to stirring the pot.
I made my Support the Pride donation. However, it was with reserve this year. I too must mention that the no homework policy and the new inclusive classroom setups are disappointing. It seems like a move that should have involved some parent input or at least a meeting to discuss the pros and cons. As an educator, I know that there is not a conclusive study to prove homework is NOT helpful either. However, you have focused on the few studies that say it's not beneficial. However, “the rule of 10s”, wherein the length of time that a child spends on homework should be no more than 10 minutes per night for each grade level of school, and none for Kindergarten actually works. Therefore a first grader should get about 10 minutes a night, second grader 20 minutes a night all the way up to a 12th grader at 120 minutes per night. Last year KSE was on top of this and the students were getting an appropriate amount of homework. Now, we have a group of 5th graders that will go to a new school unprepared for the reality that HOMEWORK really exists. Wow what a way to send them off! I’m sorry you are so angry about this change.
Please explain when the decision to remove homework was made. Was this a decision that was supported by CCSD? We should have been warned so that we could have looked at other options for educating our children. This haphazard decision will only potentiate the decreasing test scores and unpreparedness of our children. Please understand that teachers are not communicating what's going on in the classrooms. Please understand that the websites don't help! They just increase screen time when as parents we are fighting to minimize screen time. Is it possible that your ego is causing you to ignore all of the constructive feedback that the no homework policy isn't working? Who do we contact at the district level regarding this matter? It's still our tax dollars that fund this school. We need someone who can help our children achieve academic excellence! It's cute to wear a construction hat, get pies thrown in your face, and even pretend to be the ice cream server. However, we need to get serious about educating our children so they will have an option to choose an alternate profession than the ones you callously imitate. My supervisor’s name is Dr. Jami Frost – 770-426-3479
Special thanks to the 2nd grade teachers who presented the Common Core Math Strategies to parents. It was very helpful. Also, a very special teacher sent out handouts that we were able to work on with our kids at home. I don't want to mention a name since homework is prohibited at this school now. In addition, there was a Readers Theater put on by some talented 2nd graders, that gave us time to see our kids perform, see what's going on in their classroom, and bond with other families. This was very special especially since the Thanksgiving lunch was also banned this year. Kudos to the 2nd grade teachers who go the extra mile! They are a fabulous group of teachers who had nothing to do with “banning” the Thanksgiving lunches.
I am white but even I was offended by the DIY headdresses being made, worn, and sent home by KSE students. If we are trying to be an inclusive school, we must educate ourselves on cultural misappropriation. I am not asking that teachers actually teach and explain the horrific treatment of Indigenous people at the hands of European colonialists, but they should at least empathize and understand that mockery headdresses are indeed culturally insensitive. I am sure they were done in effort to celebrate. However, it's in poor taste and pretty offensive to those of Native descent. Let's reach out to local Natives and invite them to our International Day next year to get some better ideas for celebrating Native Americans. Thank you for sharing your concerns and ideas. We appreciate your input and will definitely put those practices in place moving forward.
All of these were submitted on Thanksgiving night between 10:45 and 11:15 PM, our website does not have a built-in breathalyzer, so taking away the anonymity is the best decision. If you are the angry person who submitted all of these, I’d like an opportunity to sit down and talk with you.
Still smiling – because your children and the KSE staff deserve it.