Parent advocates urged to unite

The consumer movement is being felt in schools trhoughout the United States and Canada, particularly in the public schools. Consumers, in the form of parents, are demanding not only that they be listened to, but that the schools recognize they are part and parcel of a partnership.

Parents have held bake sales and earned money to place refrigerators in the teachers' room, for example, or formed sewing bees to make a new curtain for the auditorium stage.

Some of that continues, but something new has been added. Parents of children with special needs are actually required to help the school decide on a proper course of study for an individual child. This has stimulated a concern by all parents that they, too, want to help determine not only what classes their chilren will attend but who will teach them and how resources will be allocated within a school district.

Parents who want some help becoming organized, or who need down-to-earth information may be interested in sending for a short, inexpensive ($1) booklet called: "Parent Guide to Education." (Write the Education Advisory, 2267 Kings Avenue, West Vancouver, B.C. V7V 2C1.)