“Having gone to school doesn’t mean we all can run a school”

Having gone to school doesn’t mean we all can run a school is a useful post written by the President of the San Carlos School Board. He offers a perspective on some of the challenges of parent engagement. Here’s an excerpt:

in modern public education, parents are placed in the odd position of being simultaneously the customer, the shareholder (as taxpayer), and the part-time (unpaid) employee of the school district. And this relationship happens on a daily basis – very few services are consumed with the frequency of public education. There is no relationship on earth, with either public or private institutions, that rivals this intimacy.

And here’s another one:

Parents and all community members can believe multiple truths that are not in contradiction: that it is absolutely our job to demand great schools and to hold people accountable, but at the same time have a level of humility to recognize the fact that we are not experts, that schools only succeed as a partnership between the school the community, and that there is a fundamental difference between being a foodie and running a restaurant.

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