MPASSa goes underground

The MPASSa group, presumably in preparation for their upcoming SSA battle, has gone underground. Their Yahoo group, which used to be public is member only now. Don't guess they'll approve my subscription--but you can try.

They've gotten some blowback from the community after being profiled, again. Community comments are generally in the vein of these:

The standard doesn’t sound too stifling to me, but of course I attended Metro schools at a time when girls could not even wear pants. When would Neade Forsythe’s mom draw the line? Bikini? Strapless ball gown? Tube top? Pajamas? Tennessean

and

Parents have a right to object to the school dress code; however, to instruct their children not to comply is to enable them to accept the notion that rules do not apply to them. Tennessean

and

...the message that Ms. Crownover has sent to her daughter is that it is OK to violate a board policy and make her own decision regarding what she should wear.

What about Metro’s zero tolerance policy regarding bringing weapons into our public schools? Is it OK, Ms. Crownover, for your daughter to violate this policy? Tennessean

Recently, MPASSa has been up-in-arms about the hiring of Benjamin Wright. Not sure what that has to do with SSA but lack of focus on the core mission (something MNPS has a problem with) will only weaken the effort. But after reading via their RSS some of the astonishing comments made it was probably best for their cause that their comments were not available for public judgment.

I really like what Martin Kennedy had to say several days ago:

She [a mother of a Meigs Magnet school student] does accept that the state tells her that her child must go to school, where to go to school, at what time, chooses the curriculum, and chooses the teachers. It is just the collared shirts and khaki pants she finds objectionable. I would bet dollars to donuts that this woman is opposed to school vouchers that offer an opportunity for genuine choice.

This is a great point. Government run schools dictate so much of a child's life, and a family's life. Why is what they wear the hill to die on? Why isn't it freedom of school choice? Freedom of curriculum? Freedom of calendar choice? Why clothing? What you wear comes and goes. You may look back on 20 year old pictures and cringe but what can really handicap you is what you did and didn't learn 20 years ago.