Creepy? Could Be

On the Parents for Public Schools listserv I'm on, there is a great Hallooing and Hurrahing that the district is finally implementing "School Loop," an e-mail school-parent communication tool. This is meant, in part, to take the place of the Wednesday envelope, which routinely has the weekly newsletter, flyers, fundraising appeals, etc., in it. Since Avocado routinely forgets to give me the Wednesday envelope (which must be signed by a parent, as part of her Citizenship grade) I am all for going electronic. However, it appears that there's more to it than that:

Once I signed up, I chose to get an email automatically sent to me (every day at 5:00 o'clock sharp!) that summarizes everything: His grades to date, assignments completed, assignments due, grades to date, weighting of the grades in each class. It also notes absences and tardies. And I can email teachers directly with any questions.

Maybe I'm just a lazy parent, but I don't want to know all this on a daily basis. Let me know if there's a problem, you bet. But micromanaging my kid's education on a daily basis--at a time when she's yearning for autonomy and the ability to self-manage, and has to learn the skills to do it--seems deeply intrusive.

On the other hand--and I am well known to have many, many hands in discussions like this--having had one child who frequently fell off the table school-wise--this would have been an excellent tool to have some times. I haven't seen the interface, and the note above suggests that there are various frequencies and bits of data I can opt in or out of. But for my own temperament, I'm pretty sure having too much information will make me just as or more anxious as too little. The PPS Mom goes on to say:

Personally, I loved that there was no way I COULDN'T know what was going on - he started running home before I got there to check his daily grades (and, in some cases, prepare his speech for a grilling from mom!) I joked that 'you can run, but you can't hide!' But seriously, knowing I was getting and email at work just before coming home seriously lit a fire. Also, it easily provides the information HE needs to know how to address his grades and plan for the week ahead.

Well, the kid's certainly had his anxiety level raised. And what it says about the underlying trust between parent and child I'm still parsing. I also wonder how much additional work this makes for the teachers, but I can see as how there are side benefits for the teachers in this too. In fact, the whole system reads, in a certain light, like a CYA measure from the school district: Don't tell me you didn't know that Little Selma was getting Bs in Advanced BioEngineering! It's right there on her School Loop report!

I'm going to have to parse this more.

rolanni has a modest proposal

It's Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day. Proposed date: June 23rd (the day Cyrano de Bergerac supposedly traveled to the moon).

Let the parades begin! Let Hallmark develop a new revenue stream! And particularly, let the chocolates appear, preferably by transporter, on the desks of writers everywhere!