Conflict, Politics, and Schools

Conflict, Politics, and Schools

I would like to start my reflection on this paper out by saying that this chapter had a lot of information and counteracted a lot of what the “Tough Times, Tough Choices” was saying or how to get the ideas enacted. I truly believe that the politics plays a huge part in public schooling and the policies and procedures that are put into place by the school boards. The chapter talked a lot about the diversity and conflict in schools today. I recently went back to my elementary school and was amazed at the amount of diversity that a school has encountered in the past 30 years. When I was in second grade the city school children were being bussed into the suburb schools for the first time. I remember the politics that went on with both sets of parents during that time. What I got out of this chapter can almost be summed up in one sentence from the handout, “Once decisions are made to create public policy, then they must be carried out through organization, staffing, and financing in a process of implementation.” I feel that once a policy is set up, you are never going to make everyone happy. There is always going to be complaints and push back. Another piece of the chapter was the discussion on polices that are coming up in today’s schools relating to library censorship, sex education, school prayer, elections, etc. It is interesting to read out how different school believe based solely on their “population” of the area and the religious make-up of the school community. Is Mark twain bad, should be teach abstinence only, and is it ok to have a school prayer. There are the minor but major policies that schools have to deal with