I”m a bit surprised at your response, metmom, knowing how you feel about education. You said, “It’s supposed to be the teachers who teach, not the parents.” I have to disagree with this statement somewhat. Teachers ought to be assisting the parent in the training of their children. It’s the very notion that this is fully the teacher’s job that is at the heart of what’s wrong in public education today, is it not?
You also said, “The fact that it doesn’t work without parental involvement proves that it doesn’t work at all.” Again, think about this statement for a moment and the “training up” you’ve done with your own children. The message the parent sends to his/her children about anything, directly informs the values a child has, the decision a child makes. A lack of involvement in a child’s education will send a clear signal to that child about the level of importance the activity of learning ought to receive.
Finally, you said, “Public school kids who succeed do so in spite of the public education system, not because of it.” How do you think they do this? By their own strivings? Well, to a large degree, yes. These students succeed amidst all manner of things that run contrary to learning. But I guarantee you, GUARANTEE YOU, that they do it with the advantage of having a significant adult presence at home exhorting, admonishing, reproving, and, occasionally rebuking them toward the finish line.
No. The role of parents in education is critical. Look in Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Parents’ abdication of their responsibility for their children’s education (a responsibility that we, as homeschoolers take to the fullest degree) is an important component (but by no means the only component) of what makes America’s public schools the abysmal failure they are today.
Yes, but I think you read it wrong.
I was using the argument which educators use. I have heard far too often how parents are not *qualified* to teach because fill in the blank...., as an argument against homeschooling.
I've certainly seen far too often the education establishment take credit for its success. I've seen enough bumper stickers which say *If you (your child) can read this, thank a teacher*.
If they're going to take credit for the success of education, they need to accept responsibility for its failure as well.
If the education establishment worked, it would work without the parents involvement. The fact that the parents are critical to a child's successful education shows that it doesn't do what is claimed, IOW, it doesn't work.
I see it differently.
The way I see it is that the public education system is an abysmal failure not because of lack of parental involvement, but because it is an abysmal failure inherently, and the only reason it is not universally an abysmal failure is because of parental involvement.
The product is broken, it doesn't work.