Ok! Some parents are irresponsible! I agree!
Then why should we apply a model of schooling ( our current government school system) that demands parental interest if there is to be success? Isn't this a perfect prescription for failure? Doing this seems to me to be utter insanity, as well as a waste of time and money and destruction of young lives.
Children in homes with dysfunctional parents would do better in schools similar to KIPP schools. George Will calls them paternalistic schools. These schools attempt to duplicate in the institution what happens in the homes of children with functional parents.
Then...What about children whose parents are functional and do show them good examples of learning? How much learning is really happening in the school? How much is **entirely** due to the parents and child's efforts in the home? It could be that the only thing a typical government school does is send home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow. It is the parents and child who are doing 99% of the learning and teaching **in the home**!!!
So?...If children in functional homes are successful because they and their parents are doing 99% of the work through “afterschooling”, maybe these kids would do far better if they spent a lot **less** time in school!
In a functional family it could be that the typical government school is actually retarding and delaying a child's emotional, social, and educational progress.
To apply another model that effectively excludes the ignorant parent input, along with those who truly care, is exactly what your friendly, communist central government wishes.
But that is exactly the point - make all families dysfunctional and retard everyone to the point of perpetual adolescence...