Savvy: (sav-vy (savee) -verb: to know; understand. (savvy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 04, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/savvy) Having and using common sense and intelligence.
Parent: [pair-uh
( parent. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 04, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parent)
( parent. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 04, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parent)
Being a “savvy parent” is our duty as parents. It means that we are aware enough of the environment in which we live both locally, regionally and globally, and that we are making choices that benefit our kids and hopefully other children as well. It means that we are acting as proper and fierce advocates for the rights of our children to be duly and properly educated and well taken care of especially during the time of their lives where they are really not able to legally or emotionally advocate for themselves. All parents must do this, it is part of our job description, it is sad to think that someone may use this against parents who want to obtain what they feel is the best for their children. A savvy parent is not someone with suitcases of money who will pay anything to send their child to an elite, private, upper-crust pre-school--that is a rich parent. A savvy parent is someone who will fight for their child’s right to enroll in a spectacular public or not-for-profit preschool that they might not be zoned for or scrape up enough money and go without cable for a year so their child can be a part of a school they otherwise cannot afford. A savvy parent will collect the information they need to make these decisions and upon doing so find out more information they never knew they needed to know and will probably share that with some of their friends. I was at the recent CEC (Community Education council) for District 31 meeting (31 encompasses the entire general department of education schools on Staten Island) to support the Staten Island Green Charter School for Environmental Discovery, and boy was I ever riled up by what one person who seemingly is advocating for children and public schools as a whole had said. She basically came out and said that savvy parents need to be condemned for wanting a choice for their children. That by being a savvy parent, one is being opportunistic, elitist, and well, biased.
The CEC 31’s have in effect replaced what used to be known as Community School Boards, every district has one and its members are all volunteers and many from the public education sector. Some of their responsibilities include: Promoting the success of the DOE Educational standards and objectives; Act in cooperation with School Leadership Teams; Consult with the Chancellor and the Panel on Educational Policy when it pertains to their specific district; Evaluate the impact on student learning by the district’s Schools and other educational programs and; Designate zoning lines. (http://www.cec31.org/index.html) They are also an open forum of sorts to have a public say in what educational policies and issues may be on the brink of passing and up for discussion. I went there, with some other parents, to support a school that holds as its mission the opportunity for all learning styles to be supported. Through the differentiated learning that the school is proposing, children who need a little extra help may be able to get it here, and not be overlooked or overworked at a traditional public school. Charter schools are publicly funded and need to hold a lottery.
The argument that this woman, a longtime public school employee and lifelong educator, held was that, a certain portion of our society will not be savvy enough to access something called the internet and not know what their rights are as parents when it comes to accessing schools like this one is proposing to be. I say, this woman really needs to understand that in the world in which she once came from, when her children were small and just starting out going to school, that might have been the case, but this is such a different world. Most parents are savvy. Case in point two other women at the meeting, both who are educators and one of whom spoke out against the charter school model, actually manipulated the public school system to get her daughter transferred to what she deemed was a better school. They both have young children and are actively playing a role in the education of their children. All parents for whom education plays a big part in their child’s life are doing this. And those parent’s do not equal 2. Those parents are a million strong. Even more. There is no more the excuse of, “Oh, I just didn’t know that.” They look on the internet, talk to one another, get daily emails sent to them by the DOE, savvyparent.com, greatschools.com, other parents. There is so much access to information that it sometimes may be hard to weed through, but it is there. If this is a priority for their children, if it is something they think is important, then they will find out what they need to do. Sure it is time consuming, sure it is annoying, but they will be savvy by the end of it and their kids will be the better for it. Do not talk down to me or accuse me of trying to get something over on the system or taking something away from another child because I am a savvy parent, because guess what, you were too.
