Lynnell Mickelsen bashes 'bad parents' in her column, "life of the city" in December 3-16 issue of the Southwest Journal.
Re 'Culture Wars' as an explanation for the concern that many parents have about school quality, LM says, > [beginning of quote] "...Conservative think tanks have funded endless studies which predictably declare public schools a failure and recommend--surprise!--private school vouchers. And Liberals have demanded public schools overcome all the ills of society including racism, poverty and parents who screw up..." [end of quote] Lynnell Mickelsen has been conducting tours of Lake Harriet Community Schools during the last couple of years. While conducting these tours, Lynnell doesn't say what she really thinks: the schools are fine, there is no need to worry about how your kids will do unless you are a bad parent. > [beginning of quote] "...But often I wish I could cut loose and add the following taboo stuff:" "Relax. Yours will turn out fine. Or they won't. Either way the school won't have much to do with it. Because most of the time, It's the family, stupid. If parents stay sober, feed their kids, enforce bed times, give hugs, teach manners, turn off the TV, read books, monitor homework, and show up at conferences--by God, it may be a miracle and trust me, it will be time consuming, but most of these offspring will do all right." "They'll do even better if parents stay reasonably sane and don't project their personal psychological dramas--a bad marriage, stressful job, nasty childhood--onto their children and the school. Parental sanity gives kids a huge educational edge. No school, public or private, will talk about this because there are too many crazy parents who are too touchy. But it's true." [end of quote] There are indeed a lot of "touchy, crazy parents" out there. Maybe there aren't so many in the SW Journal distribution area, but there are an awful lot of 'those people' elsewhere in the city. It should also be noted that in the school board race, the top vote getter in Ward 5 was Evelyn Eubanks. Eubanks ranked second in Ward 6, third in Wards 3 & 8, and fourth in Ward 4. -Doug Mann Doug Mann for School Board <http://educationright.tripod.com> _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
