Nashville News Blog

Free at last from the tyranny of SSA. What a ridiculous waste of time and money that was. The argument that it 'saves money' was obviously made by people who do not have kids. My kids had two wardrobes: their SSA clothes and the clothes they changed into the second they got home from school. I wonder how much of an effort was made at other schools to gage parent opinion. Also, and I should know this, was it just high schools given the opt-out option? Does Hillsboro mean just the high school or the whole cluster?

Maybe these schools can donate all the khaki items and polo shirts they had to purchase that their kids will never wear again to the schools that did not opt out.

If they make my kids wear a uniform, I WILL sue.

Why only these making the ask?

We aren't used to things getting in the way of instruction like sending kids to the office for stripes.

What the district did not do, of course, is communicate directly with parents to tell them that the opt-out option existed and required grass-roots support.

Nor did they communicate a clear opt out procedure to any school. Mine, one on the list, pushed central office to let us know how. We did surveys on our own because we knew they'd want data; we didn't wait on them to tell us how. If we had waited, we'd still have the policy.

I'm sure the parents, students and administration of these schools see no need to limit students' rights in order to fix a problem that doesn't exist in their schools.

Exactly, although include a majority of teachers, too.

Nice. You and your elitist buddies have finally made it happen so that only "those children" have to dress nice. All the middle and upper class kids get to dress any way they want so that their "creative juices" can flow.

Excellent, now the nice white elite schools can let their students dress in the conformist uniforms of the hour while schools that educate less fortunate kids will continue to enforce students dressing like they mean to get an education.

We poor, undeserving Nashvillians always appreciate help from people who sell their counter culture papers to huge conglomerates.

Tell us more about how we should do things Bruce.

I find it interesting Karl Warden, that next school year your family is taking your child from Hillwood, an SSA school and sending him to Hillsboro, a non-SSA school. Perhaps you should rethink that if you are so angry at the elitists since under your definition, Hillsboro is full of them.

The truth is that 7 schools opted out and all but 10 of the 125 or so schools left asked for modifications. There is just no broad community support for the SSA policy as implemented two years ago.

What would be more fair to all students is to opt all schools out and then let those that choose opt back in, accomodating their community and local support. Wait, that WAS the original policy 3 years ago. And that is exactly where the district is heading as this policy unravels like the cheap, crappy clothes we were told to buy at Walmart.

The strongest corrolation for these schools, Bruce, is that these are the ones that actually consulted their parents. The elementary school principals decided just to ask one another and act as a collective mob. The other zoned schools were asked on the Thursday before Spring break to consult their parents and report back on monday of Spring break--so only the high schools that had been proactive and anticipated some trick like that had a chance.

I started off firmly against SSA and came to a more nuanced view, concluding that both sides in some ways were badly out of touch.

At some schools, SSA really is useless and an imposition that contributes nothing to learning or achievement.

Yet during the public comments at school board meetings two years ago, I couldn't help but be moved by the way some parents so passionately asked for SSA. They believed that their kids were in chaotic school environments and were all for anything that would help bring order. Unfortunately, they had been sold a bill of goods by Pedro Garcia and a board that misrepresented research on the subject and convinced many people that SSA would reduce violence and gang activity and would facilitate better learning.

The two parent groups completely talked past each other. Many of the anti-SSA parents DID come across as elitist and out of touch, talking about limits to their kids' freedom of expression. Understandably, some of the parents from failing schools looked at them like they were from Neptune, because more freedom in their schools was exactly the wrong prescription, even if uniforms did nothing to improve test scores.

There is not much doubt that imposing discipline (of which SSA is one form) has been an important factor in turning around some troubled schools. It starts with a principal who is a strong leader and imposes an orderly environment for learning. The NY Times the other day ran an interesting story about a school in South Carolina that had been all but written off as incorrigible until the arrival of a young new principal who, among other things, reimposed corporal punishment with a paddle. As out of fashion as paddling is, and as disturbing as it remains to many, all stakeholders in the school (including students) seemed to agree that paddling had made an important contribution to creating an environment where kids could learn. There are many other anecdotal examples that don't necessarily involve corporal punishment but which show that much firmer and more consistent discipline has been an important ingredient in school turnarounds.

This suggests an argument for returning to the old policy that allowed schools on an individual basis to mandate standard attire.

On the other hand, I thought the most compelling argument for district-wide SSA was one that the board did not make until the battle lines were hardened, and then only feebly. The argument is that a school-by-school standard would leave kids at the SSA schools feeling branded as inferior or trouble-makers (and would create rifts between them and those kids whose schools were deemed successful enough that no SSA was necessary). This is a more realistic argument that it might seem at first blush, because neighborhood schools exist only loosely here as a concept. For example, in one square mile in North Nashville, you will find kids who attend Hillwood (designated by the state as a failing school), others who attend Pearl-Cohn (more segregated but not a failing school); Hume-Fogg; MLK; and Nashville School of the Arts.

The argument made by some parents and finally by several board members was, basically: "We're all in this together. We realize that some of your children may go to wonderful schools that really don't need SSA, but we're asking for our sakes that everybody do this together. It really won't hurt you to dress in standard attire, and we think it will really help us."

Unfortunately, as I said, Garcia and a couple of his board cronies, who pushed principals to praise the beauty of the superintendent's new clothes, cooked the evidence for SSA in a way that would have made Cheney and Rumsfeld proud. When the anti-SSA parents saw through the administration's transparent and manipulative efforts, the case for SSA lost all credibility with them. It was typical of Pedro's divisiveness, and it completely sabotaged the possibility for trust and some kind of mutual accommodation between the sides.

I have a kid who attends a magnet high school (which, ironically, makes me persona non grata both to the school board and to the board's mortal enemy, the heroic sans culottes who write about education issues for the Scene). I go by the school almost every day and notice what kids are wearing. Well before they announced they were opting out, the school took a very lax position on enforcing SSA. (Earlier this week, I saw a girl in a miniskirt that probably would have earned a trip to the principal's office under ANY dress code, let alone SSA). Yet I still see a number of kids (20-25%, I would guess) who are dressed in the standard attire. The great majority of the time, these kids are African American.

What this suggests to me is that the parents of these kids who still follow the standard attire do so at the insistence of their parents, perhaps so they don't stand out from other kids in their neighborhood who attend zoned schools where the policy is still enforced. Clearly, even at the magnet schools, some parents think SSA has value, or at least that people should conform to the rules even if they didn't agree with them.

I don't object to uniforms per se, even though I don't think they provide the benefits the board originally claimed. I do object to the way the board and previous director handled the whole situation.

When Fidel dies, I'm hoping Pedro can return to Havana and become Raul Castro's Raul Castro. It's the part he was born to play. Maybe he can persuade Ed Kindall to learn español and join him.

Gosh, that's a lot of anger. I assume you meant Hillsboro, not Hillwood - but either way, you as a parent have the right to send your child anywhere you can if you think that choice is in your family's or child's best interest. And I don't care what your child wears, whether he prefers it or you have something to prove. There are other parents who feel it is not in their family's or child's best interest to wear SSA and they have the right to make that choice, if that choice is available to them. And at some schools it appears it is.

We likely agree on more than we disagree. Do I think the district has handled this situation well, in a fair manner? No. Do I think it will cause unnecessary friction in the community? Yes.

What I don't like is being called elitist because others do not agree with my viewpoint. It is class warfare at it's finest and it's tearing this community apart. I am not calling you names - you just vehemently disagree and I accept that.

I just pointed out that it's not nice to essentially call the parents at Hillsboro elitist when you will soon be part of their community because they made a decision that is different than yours. And I pointed out that there is no broad community support for SSA as implemented, which is true. And it is a failing policy by virtue of the many requests for modifications, which is true. And that this entire exercise has been a waste of time and goodwill when the district can afford neither.

Come on with it. SSA has been a nightmare. I have only one of my two children in shcool now, but anohter entering in the fall. It is not the schools job to dress my children, it is mine. As a single parent I am tired of being forced to buy two sets of clothes for my child and soon both children. Money is tight as it is and having to buy two sets of clothes does not help. Nothing I ever bought my children is revealing, inappropriate, or wrong for school. Why does the school district think it is necessary to tell me and my children what they can wear and that they have to tuck their shirts in to be dressed appropriately, they are girls and girls do not always have to tuck to be dreseed nicely. Please. Please lets get done with the mess the Pedro started and then let and has proably forgotten.

Karl! Double up on the meds, man!!

Karl--
no worries, dude, nobody knows anything about you or your family or what your real name is...but wow, does all your anger show how much better the world--and your family--would be without the extra stress of SSA. Also true of the board members--SSA totally derailed the board for the last couple years, to the point that they virtually catatonically listened to total mis- and non-information presented by mnps and thanked them for being so informative. I do think, with Register, they are starting to wake up a bit...but they are still going to have a lot of time wasted on SSA as rogue princpals try to invent their own power-surge rules.

Wow. Where were you guys when I was complaining loudly about this at special ed meetings, Hill meetings and Hillwood meetings and any MNPS meetings where I could get a voice? I guess I was stuck with people who supported it. Register even told me publicly that most parents liked it. Teachers told me it was ridiculous. They could not enforce it or they'd be doing it all day. From a special education parent perspective, it diminished a way my child could express herself. We had to buy extras at cheap places I refused to shop at bc she tore her shirts and wet her pants. I've sent my child to school every day the last two years in vanilla, generic clothing. She had no way to tell me that her peers were bending the rules and had little ways to create cliches by purchasing certain brands and wearing certain combinations. It was supposed to make her and every one else blend it and for us it had the opposite effect. Plus, it cost me so much money. From the get-go, special education parents dreaded this idea. There were horror stories, we'd anticipated such as the child sent to the office bc his mother forgot to put his belt on before she sent him off on the special ed bus in his wheel chair. The belts. Some of our children lack the motor skills to use them. I asked and received an exemption, but many parents did not think or know to. That meant you had adults fastening the belts of students. Great precedent for a population where 98 percent are taken advantage of sexually. Thank God I've transferred her to a school where individuality is valued. And I'll be amongst others who value it as well. Sigh.

I was mocking you with my copious capitalization.

I realize that might not have translated.

But hey! I'm allowed to be immature. And wimpy. After all, I am a high school student. I guess my stupidity stems from my inability to challenge the system by wearing WELL-fitted jeans and a plaid shirt.

And as for your positively sickening glorification of jeans and T-shirts, obviously you missed the lesson in high school about seeing both sides of an issue.

I apologize for picking on you. My collar must be a little too tight.