Occupy Your School District
Notes From the Field
Submitted by Frank Murphy on November 16, 2011
As a parent of three children who attended the Philadelphia Public School District, I knew what type of educational experience I expected them to receive in school. The fact that I was a teacher and a school administrator definitely shaped my thoughts on this matter. For nineteen years, from the time my oldest child entered kindergarten at Powel Elementary School till the graduation of my youngest from Central High School, my wife and I were actively involved in our children’s education.
In retrospect we are pleased with the quality of the education our children received in the Philadelphia Public Schools. This is not to say there were moments when we were not satisfied with the actions of individual teachers and school administrators. But these negative experiences were definitely the exception rather than the rule.
The majority of the teachers we encountered as parents were competent professionals, among them some quite
