Well, then, if the parents have failed the children, why aren’t the children getting an education?
It’s supposed to be the teachers who teach, not the parents. After all, they’re the *trained professionals*, right?
If the public education system worked, it would work with or without parental involvement. The fact that it doesn’t work without parental involvement proves that it doesn’t work at all. What works is the parents doing it.
Parents *helping their kids with homework* = homeschooling.
Public school kids who succeed do so in spite of the public education system, not because of it.
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.
Well, then, if the parents have failed the children, why aren’t the children getting an education?
Excuse me? Half of all marriages end in divorce, leading to single parent households. Fatherless households among blacks is even higher. Parents failing their children.
Asians including children of immigrants from India stress education for their children. Many of these parents do not speak English very well but their kids excel at school. My wife is from China and we have a 4th and 5th grader. My kids watch NO tv during the week and only a few hours per day on the weekend. Most kids left unsupervised lack the motivation and discipline to practice a healthy routine of learning thereby leaving themselves at a serious disadvantage (look at what is being discussed in the metro Charlotte, NC area as an answer to black males failing in the system). Once again parents failing their children.
All politics are local. School boards. PTA. Parents vote for local political offices and the majority of their property tax is contributed towards the public school. If the parents aren’t involved and active in local politics particularly if their local schools are not making the grade then the parents have failed their children.
Children are the victims, victims of the system and in some cases victims of their parent(s) lack of involvement and not establishing standards, routines and expectations for their kids.