With advocacy, I feel I have to be comfortable with the possibility that people will want to run the other way when I walk through the school doors even though I try my darndest not to be condescending or disrespectful.
The problem I've found is that advocacy involves asking questions and many people interpret asking questions=lack of trust=an accusation of hiding something. When I asked the school about questionable MAP testing data, after getting through the runaround, it turned out they were giving out bogus data because they took bad preliminary data on blind faith without analyzing or asking any questions. When I asked for more transparency in sharing test information with the parents so these mistakes wouldn't happen in the future (give parents their child's official NWEA test report instead of a hand written note with bogus renormed data), it was turned around that I was accusing them of hiding things. I felt as if I'd gotten a bad diagnosis from a doctor and when I got a second opinion that highlighted problems with the first doctor's information, instead of "Thank you for being a responsible patient. I will make sure other patients have the correct information and take steps so this won't happen in the future" it was "What?! You didn't trust me and got a second opinion?"
I do feel lots of peer pressure from the other parents to be more supportive i.e. go with the flow and stop asking questions. So the price I pay is less social support. Better that I pay the price rather than the children who will pay if parents aren't asking questions.
