“The best and wisest parent”
by pureparents
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.”
John Dewey, The School and Social Progress
That’s how PAA opened our position paper on ESEA.
It’s also an apt description of our co-founder Leonie Haimson, who became the target of attack this week for having enrolled one of her children in a private school after many years as a public school parent.
The misreading of Leonie’s advocacy position is that it’s hypocritical for her to criticize people who send their children to private school, when she is now doing the same.
The truth is that Leonie has consistently advocated for every child to have what President Obama’s children and the children of other education leaders whose children attend private schools have – a high-quality education that includes small class sizes and is not focused on standardized tests. Her criticism is not about where they send their children, but about the fact that they force unsound policies and practices onto other people’s children that they avoid for their own children.
