Conversations about Our Schools

Posted by Ann Deaton Share Your Voice

Passions run high when we talk about schools and what they do and don't offer to our young people. I ran across one especially passionate conversation last week in the Nonprofit Quarterly. It was a discussion about a new law that is being called the "parent trigger", an option by which a  public school can be converted to a charter school when the majority of parents of the children attending a school sign a petition supporting the change. The article discusses a group called Parent Revolution and their approach in Compton, California to facilitate the first application of the law, and it is definitely NOT without controversy.

I've been reading this conversation with interest. (click on link above if you'd like to read it too). What I love and appreciate is the passion for making our schools better. What is harder for me is when we attack others who share our intention to offer a better education to our young people. What are the ways we can continue to take advantage of our different ways of seeing things, and our anger when things are not right, and channel these strong emotions together to ensure positive change?

I think the answer lies in collaborative creation rather than in believing there is just one right answer to the issues. One approach we are taking in Bounce is to partner with schools, students, teachers, school leaders, and leaders in our community to create a spirit of collaboration and a climate in our schools that emphasizes emotional intelligence and shared responsibility. It's an amazing challenge, and made much more doable when we see each other as partners with the same vision. Charter schools may be one answer, and partnering with our public schools to make them better could be a solution as well. What other effective solutions are people discovering and developing? What are the best ways to share these so that they can spread?

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Ann Deaton I am a leadership coach, and Managing Partner in Bounce. I love to coach and facilitate with individuals and systems experiencing significant change and growth. The clients I work with, regardless of their age or position, are talented and creative individuals willing to look with fresh eyes at their challenges and opportunities, and to take action based on their discoveries. As a result, they find that they are capable of accomplishing far greater things than they ever imagined. What do you want to accomplish today? Who do you want to be?