Exit Interviews and All That Jazz

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with our school district human resources director.  She had a prepared list of questions (apparently asked of all retirees) designed to provide our superintendent with important "post-employment" feedback about our work experiences years.  The only problem was...those weren't the questions about which I wanted to expound.

So...in typical Schwartz fashion...I decided to pose the questions I wished I had been asked.
1.  How would I redesign our District's approach to education in order to meet the community's objectives?
2.  How can the District restore its commitment to providing a comprehensive high school education?
3.  In what ways can the District incorporate new curriculum that resonates off of the MN Governor's Workforce Development Council rather than knee-jerk to test scores?
4.  How can our District remain competitive in light of alternative charter school options?

The final (big) question that no one seems to want to ask is "How can our District promote responsible, effective parent involvement in the education of our students instead of passively supporting political criticism of all teachers?"  What seems to be missing in our conversations with retiring teachers is the truth about why we are retiring.  So many good teachers are leaving the profession because our political leadership lacks the courage to confront irresponsible, ineffective parenting (perhaps fearing that they, too, would be lumped into that category).

When parents are contacted because their son/daughter does not complete homework, skips class, disrupts the learning of others, disrespects the teacher, and a myriad of other obnoxious behavior issues, the parents' response should be, "What can I do to help?".  Unfortunately, the response often consists of a blame-storming exercise followed by an admission of parental impotence (as expressed by the often-expressed cry of "I don't know what I can do!").

Minnesota voters (and legislators) can do whatever they want with teacher seniority, unions, trigger laws, and so forth.  Until they are willing to confront the most serious education issue of our day--parent irresponsibility and ineffective laissez-faire child-rearing--I am convinced that many more good teachers will simply throw up their hands and find a more rewarding, supportive vocation that doesn't constantly label them as societal pariahs and failures.

As for me, I look forward to sub-teaching and volunteering with our students after my retirement.  At least my days of dealing with poor parenting will be history (and somebody else's problem).