By Annie Garrett (Estimated reading time: 7 minutes)
Parenting advice. Good or bad, it’s inarguably abundant. The better advice has motivated me to do things a little differently within my own home. But one piece of advice stood out from the rest, motivating me to see myself and my parenting more expansively. It was passed along from a friend who is a lobbyist, as a comment really, but I digested it as advice: “Parents of young children are really hard to engage in advocacy. It’s a transient state, and their hands are full. But we just really need parents to share their story.”
Prior to this, advocacy seemed like something that activists and lobbyists do. But I’ve realized that legislators want to hear from those of us doing the work of parenting day in and day out. I’ve also realized that advocating helps me to feel less isolated and more purposeful as a parent, connecting me to like-minded people and translating some of the hard work of parenting into societal progress.
I’ve since shared my story here and there, namely on childcare affordability and parental leave. I’ve done this via online action alerts, by going to Olympia, and spreading the word about issues. I’ve also followed local thought leaders in the parent advocacy space. Jamie Cho and Julianna Rigg Hillard are two such people. Dr. Cho is a parent of three, a professor at the University of Washington, and a community leader in early learning in the Bellevue School District. Dr. Hillard is a parent of three, a PEPS alum/leader, a Seattle-based community leader, and a former professor at Bellevue College. Here, snippets from a recent interview.
How has your advocacy work touched the local community?
Hillard: When my kiddo started kindergarten, he was in a school that was the fifth largest in terms of PTA fundraising dollars, and while that seemed exciting because we have such an involved parent community, there is an equity piece that creates an achievement gap between well resourced and less resourced PTAs. A well-resourced PTA can pay for extra teachers, and pay for copier paper. What does this mean for kids who don’t have access to this? What if we see every child as our own child? Other parents were thinking the same thing, so we founded Central and North Seattle Schools PTA Alliance, CANSSPA. We now have 8 member schools and are on a roadshow to the other 60 schools in our area, building momentum. It’s an easy pitch: we have a strong collective voice if we aren’t siloed in our own schools.
Cho: I have three children attending public elementary, middle, and high school and I see highly inequitable policies and practices that affect children’s daily lives, including my own. This spurs a lot of my advocacy. As an example, one project I worked on last year was keeping police officers out of our schools. I spoke out at school board meetings, wrote letters to administrators and the city, gathered folks to sign a petition, and had meetings with those who were involved in decision making.
Can you share an example of advocacy work that hit close to home?
Hillard: One of my children was a victim of teacher abuse when in first grade, and we uncovered that SPS [Seattle Public Schools] knew about this history of behavior and opted not to do much about it in part because of a state law still allowing for corporal punishment by teachers. There are two competing laws on the books. A law from the nineties says it isn’t allowed, and one that is still on the books from the eighties says you can’t strike a child with a closed fist but open is acceptable. The old law was cited in my family’s case. Unfortunately the system still cites old law when trying to determine if the offense was fireable. Through Southeast Seattle Education Coalition (SESEC), friends introduced us to Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos to propose House Bill 1239 which makes corporal punishment illegal, establishes a teacher code of ethics, and makes it possible to track teachers with a history of bad behavior. My family and I met with legislators, wrote letters, and testified in Olympia. We hope for the bill to become a law this session.
How has advocacy fit into your professional life?
Cho: As a professor at UW, I challenge the way things are done, and offer alternative ways to experience “school” that models transformative education. For instance, a small example is that I do not penalize students for late work, and I use ungrading which shifts power to students to determine their grade and effort.
What is still not really working well in terms of engaging the community, if anything?
Hillard: We don’t understand how important our voices are and how easy it actually is to advocate for things that are important to us. The barrier is: I’m not smart enough, not informed enough, don’t know who to call, don’t have enough time. Things I’m always working on for parents to know is an authentic voice. The story and narrative is what legislators care about. There are the numbers and policy wonks, but they don’t hold as much sway as an authentic voice. Second thing is, when you have an organization you trust like PEPS, and you are value aligned with their legislative priorities, it’s so easy to engage. PEPS has an advocacy initiative right now, and when the alerts come out, you just have click and trust it matters.
Excited about advocacy and want to join a community of parents advocating for equitable policies for WA children and families? Sign up for the PEPS advocacy email list to receive action alerts to weigh in on important issues at key moments!
Advocacy can seem intimidating. What insight do you have to offer to other parents who are interested in it but are intimidated or time strapped?
Cho: It can seem intimidating, and it sometimes feels removed from our day-to-day experiences, but it touches us all. I think every person matters in this work, and so whatever time and effort you can give is necessary and welcomed. For example, the censorship of books sometimes feels removed from our daily experiences because it might not be directly happening to us or our children, but what does it mean if a percentage of our nation’s children don’t have access to books with perspectives about diverse identities and lived experiences? This limited view will in the long term, affect our own children who have had access. What does it mean for us to ignore the very real consequences of climate injustice? Our children will be the ones living through the consequences. Does it inconvenience us to make lifestyle changes in support of climate justice? Yes, absolutely, and what will it take for us to commit to these actions when we know that folks in the Global South are already experiencing the repercussions of our decisions in the Global North? Let us all take action, small or large, individual and political to ensure our children have a future that is equitable and just.
Our political system has a long history of leaving BIPOC communities out of the legislative process. What insight or encouragement would you offer to other parents of color in light of this reality?
Cho: This long history has excluded BIPOC folks from having a voice in decisions that affect us all, and yet BIPOC communities have always advocated and continue to advocate for their children, families and communities. While erasure has always happened, it doesn’t mean that resistance hasn’t also existed. Parenting and caregiving well and teaching our children to be advocates for social change is the work of social justice, and I believe families of color often do this very well. Families of color also engage in care work that is advocacy in actively caring for each other so that we can continue our outward facing work of advancing justice. Just because there isn’t a seat at the table for us, doesn’t mean that we don’t keep showing up to stand at the table (making folks very uncomfortable) and make our voices heard.
Check out the PEPS advocacy webpage to learn more about advocacy at PEPS and our 2024 legislative priorities. Make sure to subscribe to the PEPS advocacy email list to stay up-to-date and receive action alerts!
About the Author
Annie Garrett, M.Ed. is a manager and adjunct faculty member in Early Childhood Education at North Seattle College. She has a background in parent education and currently volunteers as a PEPS Ambassador and Group Leader. A rather passionate fan of tiny humans and the not-so-tiny humans who support them, Annie is always looking to connect with those who are similarly impassioned @ teacher.annie.garrett@gmail.com.
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