If parents would care about their children and at least ensure they did their homework, we would have a better system. No child left behind was supposed to give that kick in the butt that President Bush wanted so much. It did not work so well. Parents are 100 percent of the problem.
If teachers did their jobs, kids wouldn’t have 2-3 hours of homework every night in elementary school and 5-8 in high school. Parents are NOT 100% of the problem.
Teachers need to teach academics not social justice.
My sister and her husband both teach in Arizona. Neither one complains about parents. Both complain long & loud about the administration, and the stupid rules and paperwork that flood them.
Since parents are the ones given the responsability to raise the children I would say that it is their problem. But I think the problem is more that parents have given up their role of educating their own children and instead turn it over to “professional” teachers.
I have read the article and would like to point out some things...The statement was made, “we live in fear of what will happen next. We walk on eggshells...”...are these the same people that trashed the Wisconsin capitol building just a few monthes ago? (when they called in sick) The same people that have disrupted several school board meetings and speeches by political leaders around the state of Wisconsin...what kind of eggshells are they walking on?
The article goes on with two more statements...”looks at him and asks, ‘Is that true?’ Well, of course it's true. I just told you.”...and “approach the situation by saying, ‘...I know that children can exaggerate’...”. So if I understand the thought process here, anything that the teacher says must be true and should not be questioned, but the parent should not believe their own child when they bring something up...parents trust the teacher more then your own child...I don't think so. Thankfully, the parents listened to their children locally so that a local teacher that had been sexually assaulting his students is no longer teaching but is now behind bars...along with a local school administrator for child porn...and the list could go on...
Other statements include “and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated,” sorry to let them know but respect needs to be earned not given or expected (we deserve). In the same article it states that most teachers only remain in the profession 4.5 years...that is not a lot of time to earn respect...and also tells me that the teacher is not the person that is going to be there for the child for the long term...that is why the parent has the responsibility to raise the child.
Another statement is...”to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it.”...here is another quote about this system, see if you want to “work with” it...”The battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being...The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new-the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism...” by John Dunphy in the article “A Religion For A New Age” in “The Humanist” published in 1983. I could go back a hundred years and give you very similar quotes from the founders of our public education system.
As a parent I have not and will not send my children into that system and will not trust those that are advocating for it...including pastors.
Even kindergarten children are in school for 6 or more hours, yet, my homeschoolers rarely spent more than 2 hours in formal study. In the early grades ( kindergarten to 4th) it was 30 **minutes** to an hour and sometimes less.
These schools are wasting a **LOT** of time. There is absolutely **no** reason why any child should need to do homework. NONE!
Let's call “homework” what it really is: AFTERschooling!
The **real** educators are the parents who make sure the AFTERschooling ( misnamed “homework”) is complete, understood by the child, and neatly worked! The real educator is the child, himself, in the HOME, who reads the text, answers the questions at the back of the chapter, makes outlines of the material, works all the examples and problems, does the reasearch project, and then thoroughly reviews the material for an exam.
By the way... There is absolutely no evidence that institutional schools teach anything. Really! NO studies have ever been done to separate out what knowledge is acquired in the classroom as compared to that accomplished in the **home**. If you like I can send you a e-mail from a Stanford education professor that plainly states that these studies have **never** been done!
It is my anecdotal observation from working with several thousand families over 30 years in my clinic that there is **no** difference between the home habits of successful institutionalized children and successful homeschoolers. And....BOTH successful homeschoolers and institutionalized children are spending the **SAME** amount of time at the kitchen table ( or desk) in the **HOME**!
I go so far as to state:
I you know an academically successful child, that child has been AFTERschooled or homeschooled.
Yeah! I am shouting. Please forgive me. I am exasperated. Our county just spent 70 MILLION dollars on a new high school and no one can prove that this 70 million is really helping the children learn.
The system is broken. It breaks good teachers and turns them into bureaucrats.
To say parents are 100 % of the problem is baloney. Sure there are bad parents, just as there are failed schools, teachers, principals and material.
The union is a big part of the problem, so is federalism. Funny how teachers and their union support federalism when it gives them money but recoil in horror when it adds some accountability.
The system is broken. It breaks good teachers and turns them into bureaucrats.
To say parents are 100 % of the problem is baloney. Sure there are bad parents, just as there are failed schools, teachers, principals and material.
The union is a big part of the problem, so is federalism. Funny how teachers and their union support federalism when it gives them money but recoil in horror when it adds some accountability.