Read the March newsletter at https://tnpta.org/news/march_2023_newsletter.pdf

Message from the President
It is March already!
This newsletter portrays PTA in action: proposed resolutions to guide future advocacy efforts of the Tennessee PTA that will be voted on by convention delegates, proposed bylaws that makes the structure of Tennessee PTA more responsive to the general membership that will be voted on by convention delegates; a slate of officers who are nominated to guide the future of the Tennessee PTA to be voted on by convention delegates, and have I mentioned, Convention! Units sending voting delegates to the state PTA convention is an important part of the PTA connection! Last day to register and to reserve a hotel room is April 7, 2023.

Personal TMI and Reading
The position statement by the board of directors, published in this and the February newsletter, pulled at my heartstrings. If this rigid law was in place way back when I was in third grade, I would have been retained. Not because I wasn’t trying. Not because I wasn’t smart enough. Not because I was some dumb country boy like my unsupportive elementary principal thought of me. I had an unknown learning disability: dyslexia.

I know there is more help now with learning disabilities but there is always that chance that some student, someone’s child, is caught without knowledge of their situation and are evaluated on one, singular test and not the whole potential. I never received any help for my dyslexia because it wasn’t discovered until years later after high school. But I was smart enough to compensate. For example, a year after third grade, I was reading comprehensively and spelling with accuracy. Placing the future of a third grader on one, singular test is not right. It certainly does not look at the student as a whole person. That is why I stand behind this position statement.
We are PTA! PTA Advocates!
Dwight Hunter
President, Tennessee PTA

View and Download the March 2023 Newsletter here