From time to time on this blog, I have talked about my annoyance with my kids' schools. Sometimes the post was related to the special education bureaucracy. Sometimes it was about our choice to move to the suburbs, because we were worried about the city public schools. Sometimes it was about the mediocre education that Jonah was getting in the suburban schools.

I often get a lukewarm or even chilly response to those blog posts. Someone will sneer, "entitlement." Others will portray me as a shrill, humorless, privileged mom picking on the poor teachers. Weirdly, commenters on another blog criticized me for being a privileged mom, because instead of complaining about things, I was dealing with the inadequacies in education privately at home.

I can't win. And it's partially because there's so much discrimination against moms. Others can rally around about abortion rights, same sex education, the War in Iraq, and a million other political matters. But a mom with a political agenda is seen as shrill and entitled. Terribly annoying.

So, this morning, I'm going to rant. Harry and Megan have convinced me that we should care about high-performing schools.

Continue reading “On Criticizing Schools” →