Can we stop parental blindness and save the future of our children? Don't let the schools keep you in the dark!

Blindness. The inability to “see”. Parents all over Puerto Rico have fallen victim to it. If you are a parent, you need to read on and find out what System PPSM is.

Parents: We can work together to cure the parental blindness that exists in Puerto Rico’s schools, especially in the private schools who have even greater leverage to lock you out.

The experimental cure I am proposing is called “System PPSM”, and I hope that this first prototype may be a step in the right direction towards completely eliminating parental blindness in Puerto Rico.

System PPSM stands for the system of “Private/Public School Manifests”. As soon as you understand that “manifest” simply means “list”, it will become more clear to you. I’ve chosen a “big” word because people tend to doubt the ability of something simple to work… although this is usually exactly the type of solution that works in the real world (Ocham’s Razor, KISS).

A PPSM is a document that all public and private schools must maintain and present upon request to ANY member of the public, with special emphasis on parents of prospective or currently enrolled students. That document contains a list of all teaching staff, admins, and their credentials. It summarizes all licensing and documentation of the school itself. It includes contact information for the governing bodies allowing for anyone to verify the information contained in the manifest.

The PPSM will be a legislated requirement. And it will be the cure of parental blindness in Puerto Rico.

You see, parents were never really blind at all. It just so happens to be that schools create a big solid barrier preventing parents from knowing everything that is going on inside. That’s why you’ll hear the word “transparency” so much in the media now. If we can’t see what’s going in inside, we often don’t even know there is a problem, let alone be able to find solutions. Solutions like PPSM are like x-ray glasses. Finally a way for us to see through it all.

The schools are covered in this big dark barrier that parents can’t see through. And the most valuable resource Puerto Rico and any country in the the world will ever have is being put at risk: Youth, the next generation.

The PPSM is our window inside. If a teacher does not have credentials to be teaching English, then we’ll know better when they get assigned to our child’s English class. Hopefully, there would NOT be any more situations of entering a classroom at schools such as Young Ambassador’s Academy in Cabo Rojo, and finding “Wednesday” misspelled on the blackboard. Please copy this students:

Today is Wenesday, April 15

I wish that was just an innocent typo. I have more than enough evidence now to suggest that it is not. However, without the PPSM, it’s hard for me to know if an unqualified teacher is assigned as the English teacher for our children.

I have the options to either remain parentally blind, or get proactive and challenge the administration for the information about teacher qualifications. Yet, that too puts the kid’s at risk, for teacher’s are hardly immune to the emotional responses they have to criticism… and we cannot expect their own virtues to be strong enough to prevent them from paying it back to the student’s in the classroom, whether consciously or not (depending on the individual).

I’m sure the parents of students attending public and private schools all over Puerto Rico would love to have PPSM, so they could rest assured their children are being left in good hands. I know the passionate parents of students of Inspiration Christian Academy would be very interested, as they’ve demonstrated by the long and ongoing debate on this very blog.

One purported ICA parent even suggests in the debate that the school is not authorized to be teaching the 9th grade! How could anyone verify if this is true or false without trying to figure out which governing bodies to contact and then getting proactive? The administration over there has not provided any statements of refute. A PPSM would be a solution if that were available and a requirement.

The PPSM is a brainstorm. However, I want you to know that if you are a parent, unless you have been given something like a PPSM (a list of teacher/admin/school certifications/credentials/licenses + contact info for verification) then you are probably just as blind as the rest of us.

I desire those of you in positions of authority to create such mandates for schools to know: you have the power to end this blindness, to insist on organized “real” transparency, and to protect our most important resource: our children, the future of Puerto Rico.

• Are you blind?
• Do you want the PPSM?
• Do you have a better idea on how this could work?

• Please provide feedback here.
• Please forward this to your school’s administration.
• Please forward this to licensing authorities in Puerto Rico.
• Help move the campaign to end parental blindness in Puerto Rico.

Right now, you are blind too.

Schools: Do NOT wait for legislation. Be leaders and prepare your own PPSM now. Provide it voluntarily to parents. If you do not, then we can only assume you are hiding something.

Teachers and schools do NOT have the right to maintain privacy regarding their qualifications to provide your children with an education.

The Insider

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