Shawn - ref dont rebuild a sinking city....someone recently said (and I apologize to the author that I cannot give credit)....

Dig a ditch between CA and Mexico, use the dirt to raise New Orleans, and put the alligators from NO into the ditch, and hey, all problems solved. (No taxpayer money for natl guard needed.)

Only in America is right, that one can make jokes such as these. But sometimes I feel parents have less freedom of speech than the general public ie they get retribution for thier expressed ideas. Maybe not you in ultra liberal CA, but in the rest of the less liberal USofA!! OK I will get off my soapbox now!

As <brightside> above posted only in America.

God bless America the only place (well maybe not the only but the BEST) you could freely discuss these topics and get freely written answers...
(wait, hey... I know I told them that already)
hmhmh... oh sorry where was I? Free speech aint it grand

Dont rebuild a sinking city.... You're wasting my @&$#$^ tax money
Shawn 2006 :cool:

Originally posted by ptomember111:
ok... i'm convinced... the pto isn't a parent/teacher "union"....

Correct they are not. Most are NonProfits. Most PTA/PTO mission statements are kinda like this...

The mission for the Calahan St. Elementary PTA is to identify curriculum and programs deemed by the membership* in its sole discretion to be vital to affect the richest educational experience possible for our children; to maximize the role of the school itself in fulfilling these objectives; and to plan, organize and execute events and programs which generate the resources and mechanisms necessary to fulfill these objectives.

Originally posted by ptomember111:
urban legend tells us of parental groups affecting policy...

The urban legen is true... Check out this link Many PTA have banded together to affect policy- Thus the PTA National Congress

Originally posted by ptomember111:
does anyone know of such groups and their formation???

The PTA National Congress

Now being a Parent Teacher Org/Association is nowhere close to being a union... They are two separate animals Org/Assoc and Unions (ie. No Mobsters, no way to go on strike to cripple their ecomomic power, no paid benefits, no bodies buried under the left goal posts- Yes Parent Org could cause problems and can cause change)

The National PTA and NEA (Teacher's Union) and other Child Advocacy groups have also banded together to try and get the Political Knuckleheads in Power to change Educational Policy and have succeded (some for good policy and some for dumb policy) This is probably the Urban Legend stuff you might be referring too

PTA/PTO can be sounding boards, do affect change in schools, can affect policy, can assist with school hires, etc)
Most of this (the unionish stuff, cirriculum, teachers, administration problems, etc) is covered by the chain of command first the Teacher or Parent Liason, Principal, School Site Council or School Based Management Commitee, then the (at least in California in LAUSD)Mini District Superintendant and District Parent Liason, then Superintendant and Board of Education

MMW - "P.S. "Ouch" someone stated that I reminded them of their daughter...juvenile,at best,I presume, hostile, antisocial, at worst? Criticism accepted. (ouch!-smile) "

Take it maybe as a compliement - kids are truly great, arent they, and NONjugdmental, open, always speak the truth as they see it, and have no agendas , just honest souls stating their opinions, as you too were, and kids are the whole reason for these msg boards anyway.

Who knows, take it any way you want it, these boards are for free speech and this is America.

If anyone takes personal offense from an anonymous msg board posting, they have NO business even surfing here, but thats just my opinion. SMILE.

PTOMEMBER111 and PTO Today GENERAL Message Board members:

My apologies for the sacasm. I found your candid responses very interesting. I now have a better grasp on the image that I am portraying to others.

While I did not feel that the initial responses to PTOMEMBER11 were very forthright, or informative, again I apologize for being so condescending & insensitive. Although I am quite frustrated with people whose speech is evasive, yet I NOW take full responsibility for being insensitive, even actually offensive with my comments.

I do plan to gleam insight from this website and I promise to listen more than I contribrute and to endeavor to assume the best. Worst case scenario I will, first, address the person whom I take issue with before I presume to respond so readily judgementally.

Again, thank you for your personal comments and it is my pleasure to finally get a candid response from what is customarily my own freestyle of speech. As an avid fan of Dr. Phil Dr. Phil...I am forced to ask myself, "How is my free style free style working for me?" ; however up to now people were often perhaps offended, but none took the time to actually clarify the nature of the offense. I am long over do for a make over in my communicative style and the free expressions of my often critical insights, and this message board has been a very inexpensive valuable "private" lesson.-mmw

P.S. "Ouch" someone stated that I reminded them of their daughter...juvenile,at best,I presume, hostile, antisocial, at worst? Criticism accepted. (ouch!-smile)

I'm on the committee which is updating ours at this very moment (only we canceled the meeting due to lack of voices to be there - guess they're afraid of what I'll write in) so I guess I could have lots of fun with this one.

Sometimes we get frustrated when we don't like all of the answers which seem to be different from what we think it should be. But when there are so few facts given in a post, sometimes our answers may be skewed from lack of data.

Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.
Malcolm X