POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Parent trigger is a joke.

It is funded by billionaires who have no interest in the local school

It sends in outside paid organizers/aggitators.

There is free speech for the pro trigger happy parents group but the school is under a gag order and cannot respond

It sets parents against parents to create what? : a charter or a voucher that cannot do any better than the regular school as is demonstrated by common core tests, and endlass numbers of other studies.?

Why? Because the problem is in the children due to poverty, not in the school, teachers, admin, curriculum or pedagogy.

Every year that passes this becomes clearer and clearer.

Hello Malkin, Doretta, and Nancy.  All the active bloggers on this site-and members of this society for ‘quality’ education.

“Only dead fish follow the stream” is a quote from a presentation of Pasi Sahlberg to a Harvard symposium April 23rd 2013.  Dr. Sahlberg is the author of “Finish Lessons” an incredible dissertation that matches his contributions and credibility in advancing education globally.  Your Daisy and her ‘myths’ are not even a footnote in this company. 

What I *love* about the book and his presentation that can be found on youtube (1hour and 28 minutes) is the international DATA.

What I really love -  is that he points to CANADA as one of the international leaders in education - he acknowledges four and we are in the company with Finland.

What is really fun is where the UK and the US land on all the data charts - average at best.  Why do you keep pointing to the US when Canada eclipses that sorry system on all international parameters.  DATA is fun.

Please look up the presentation, read the book or just search on ‘GERM Sahlberg Finland’.

cheers.  Mirka

Strikes me that the reaction to giving parents REAL power over their children’s education, school, or education funding is similar to that of the mobile phone monopoly’s reaction to the possible threat of competition.  The louder they fight against it, must mean that they fear losing control over the $$ involved.  Must be a bad thing for the consumer.

Part 1

The origins of the proverb - “Only dead fish followed the stream.”

“Bara döda fiskar följer strömmen.

  Translation: Only dead fish follow the stream.
  Note: Originally a Russian proverb.
  English equivalent: Monkey see, monkey do.
  Meaning: Independent thought is better than blindly following the group.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Swedish_proverbs

In what context did Sahlberg used “Only dead fish follow the stream?  In the New York Times - ” He emphasized that Finland’s success is one of basic education, from age 7 until 16, at which point 95 percent of the country goes on to vocational or academic high schools. “The primary aim of education is to serve as an equalizing instrument for society,” he said.

Dr. Sahlberg said another reason the system had succeeded was that “only dead fish follow the stream” — a Finnish expression.

Finland is going against the tide of the “global education reform movement,” which is based on core subjects, competition, standardization, test-based accountability, control.

“Education policies here are always written to be ‘the best’ or ‘the top this or that,’ ” he said. “We’re not like that. We want to be better than the Swedes. That’s enough for us.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school-reform-model.html?pagewanted=2&_r=4&ref=general&src=me

The Harvard video that Mirka has cited - http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/2013/04/askwith-forum-finnish-lessons/

I have heard the proverb, only dead fish follow the stream in my childhood. I wished I would have thought of it back in 2001 while an education official was chastising me for not following the other dead fishes (the students) and insist on remediation for my child. Then the education official launches a personal attack on my inability to followed the authoritative and expert voices of educators with PHDs. 

Since 2001, as a parent I have been swimming upstream in a public education system that is loathe to change to the 21st century ‘knowledge matrix’ from the 19th century ‘knowledge matrix’. Mirka, could be seen in the same light as the one education official that I dealt with in 2001, resisting change and reform because it threatens their authority and expertise. Mirka mocks, “What is really fun is where the UK and the US land on all the data charts - average at best.  Why do you keep pointing to the US when Canada eclipses that sorry system on all international parameters.  DATA is fun.”

Yes, data is certainly fun in the areas of students’ outcomes and more importantly the social costs when education systems fails to provide quality education for one and all. At the very least, to ensure all students have a solid foundation in the 3 Rs, that would enable all students to avail themselves of the academic and educational opportunities. Finland has an interesting set of data outcome contrasts. One of the outcomes, is the growing rates of students not reaching average literacy and numeracy levels. For Finland, its at the 37 % mark, but Finland is not alone. The developed countries across the globe where progressive education practices and policies are entrenched, there is the growing concern of the rising percentage of students not making the grade in literacy and numeracy.

In the video - “Competition, choice, standardized testing, and privatization have become common tactics to improve schools in many countries. This presentation shows that there is an alternative way to transform education systems and enhance learning for all students. It is the way of inclusion and equity, teacher professionalism, collaborative practice, and trust-based responsibility.”  What is never discussed are the societal and student outcomes at the micro-level in the public education systems. In Finland, its a land of contrasts when it comes to education. What is stated and whistle about comes at the price of ignoring the fish (the students) swimming upstream because the public education system has failed in providing education services that enables all students to reached their full academic potential.

Part 2 -

Its rather ironic that Sahlberg choose to used the phrase, ‘only dead fish follow the stream’, because if “Finland is going against the tide of the “global education reform movement”, they are not at all swimming upstream when it comes to the societal and student educational outcomes. Finland has little to boast about when it comes to outcomes,  but there is still much that can be learned from Finland’s education model, as can be learned from other countries.

“In Finland 27 per cent of young people achieved an educational level that was higher than their parents, and 21 per cent fell below their parents’ level. Half of young people were at the same level as their parents.
    Thirty-two per cent were better educated than their parents, and 16 per cent fell below, while 23 per cent of men out-performed their parents, and 26 per cent did not reach their parents’ educational levels. “
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Many+OECD+countries+ahead+of+Finland+in+education+levels/1329104779368

What lies behind the above figures, are the restrictions being place upon the Finland students to entered into post-secondary. Don’t passed the national exams, one won’t get a ticket into free post-secondary. Who said, Finland doesn’t have competition and testing? Just a different kind, where 50 % and above just don’t meet the grade in academic grades to entered post-secondary.

To end - a song called, Only the Dead Fish Followed the Stream….............“If you don’t fight no one else will
Give it a try, keep it alive
To see the view you got to climb the hill
Give it a try, get to know why

It’s been a long way coming
But you got to know why and when

Only the dead fish follow the stream
No, nothing is ever what it seems
You can do whatever if you know when and why
Only the dead fish follow the stream.”
http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/02/10/lyrics-text-louise-hoffsten-onlydead-fish/21997/#

The YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESRkmf3Gioc

As for GERM - its another version calling for the status-quo of the public education system rooted in the 19th century ‘knowledge’ matrix.

Snarky Educators Who Oppose Parent Rights

Ironic, isn’t it — that those who belittle parent choice are members of a class that benefits disproportionately from what the public education system offers.

The special class of people, which benefits most from the offerings of the free public education system, is the insiders in the system — the teachers who are parents with kids in the system.

Let me jot down some of the unfair advantages and privileges enjoyed by teacher/parents, who as insiders, extract what they need for their children.  Let’s be very mindful that in reality the public school system is a rationed service, with scarce resources, which simply cannot accommodate all the requests made by parents in general.  Here is how teacher/parents work the system — leaving your average parent in the dust!

1   Teacher/parents know the language, the words, to use.
2   T/Ps know how to navigate the system:  who to see, what to say, what to ask for.
3   T/Ps know how to interpret assessments, scores and evaluations and know where their child really stands in grade level and expectations.
4   If the student is behind in reading, for example, the T/P can make up the deficiency at home or hire a tutor for precisely what is needed.
5   T/Ps are at an income level where buying extra tutoring is no problem.
6   If the T/P’s child might be special needs a psychosocial assessment is readily arranged —  contrast with the often two-year waiting period for other parents.
7   Once such an assessment is made, an IEP (Individual Education Program) is negotiated between school and parent, and here again the T/P is advantaged because of knowledge of the maximum that can be available.
8   Once the IEP is in place, extra funding and resources are made available.
9   If a T/P sees there is a poor fit between their child and a teacher it is relatively easy to switch teachers as again, the “insider” language is a bonus — knowing how to explain why the child would be better off in an “unthreatening” way that does not reflect on the other teacher helps.
10   T/Ps feel keenly the urgency of child growth and development — he’s a child only once coming this way — and press their case with adeptness and urgency which in other parents would be seen as “pushy” or “helicopter parenting”.
11   T/Ps are knowledgeable about the legalities of malpractice and can use this as background allusion to further press their case if needed.
12   T/Ps are conscious of the safeguards that should be in place in cases of bullying, adoption of new untested programs or psychological invasions of privacy and know how to insist on safeguards or know how to exit from questionable practices.
13   T/Ps know full well what is a healthy and productive learning experience and if all efforts fail know how to ride out a crisis and provide make-up solutions or antidotes at home.
14   T/Ps know that they are the client in a school situation when their child is at issue and know the routes, angles and procedures to follow if they meet with resistance instead of responsiveness and are not easily discouraged from pursuing their rights and entitlements.
15   Frankly, T/Ps fully know parent rights in education and just don’t want them written down for other parents to know.

So, Parent Trigger is one of the best things that’s happened to government public education in the last 150 years.  One just has to read the book — Parents and Schools: the 150 year struggle for control in American education by William Cutler — to know that any new gains in responsiveness to parents is significant in this field where producer capture rules the roost.

“I’m all right Jack” is the attitude of some educators to parents’ frustrated hopes and fears for their children’s education in their lifetimes. And, that’s not being very sensitive, is it?

Hello Tunya,

Your post above is full of absolutes and I envy your certainty.  In my experience teachers who are parents are the best advocates in the system for students who need support.  Having my own children in the system and working in the system gives me a particular perspective that I use at every opportunity to help.

Any one who has been fortunate enough to have family or friends who are nurses, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, landscapers, roofers, contractors, plumbers…...you get the picture….... benefits from their connections.  It is how humanity has worked for centuries.  We help each other when we can.

cheers.  Mirka