Posted on 03/21/2006 3:49:11 AM PST by PittsburghAfterDark
Putting Parents In Their Place: Outside Class Too Much Involvement Can Hinder Students' Independence, Experts Say By Valerie Strauss Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 21, 2006; A08
They are needy, overanxious and sometimes plain pesky -- and schools at every level are trying to find ways to deal with them.
No, not students. Parents -- specifically parents of today's "millennial generation" who, many educators are discovering, can't let their kids go.
They text message their children in middle school, use the cellphone like an umbilical cord to Harvard Yard and have no compunction about marching into kindergarten class and screaming at a teacher about a grade.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The funny thing is my dad and I just happened to have dinner together last night and Wife Swap was on ABC (Is that the name?) and the kids said or did something just plain stupid. To which my dad said, "If that had been my kid he would have been smacked upside the head, sent to his room and been grounded for a week.".
When I look at the modern college kid I now know where the obscene sense of entitlement and self-worth comes from. A generation of disasterous American parenting. How is it "Millenium Parents" is something I've never heard of until this article?
Am I that out of it since I'm not a parent or know any school age kids or is this something new, trendy in an attempt to put a "group" label on everyone.
ping to read later
Excuse me for begging to differ, but this is also the generation of parents who saw the mom returning to work after 6 weeks maternity leave and putting the child in daycare.
I agree, but I think we are also seeing some over compensation as the parents are entering their mid40s/early 50s and attain greater affluence and have more time for things like this.
But I thought that the reason teachers couldn't teach kids to read was that their parents weren't involved ENOUGH?
Or was that last week's excuse from the union that can't teach.
The term I've heard used is "Helicopter Parents"! Why? Because they always are hovering over their kiddies.
Yes, you are right though -- parental involvement should be encouraged and welcomed. There are clinkers in that load of coal though.
Strange article, as if it is a cry "to allow the school to handle the child's education without the parents? Schools have been clammering for years for parental involvement, and now this? It must be a liberal thing, because I've never heard of this problem.
First of all, who are the experts referenced in the Washington Post article. My guess is the writer is referring to school administrators who just don’t want to be bothered with pesky parents. My kids are long out of school but, especially now, I would want to know what they’re being taught if I had kids in school. Perhaps this is an argument for home schooling, but I don’t think that was the intent of the writer.
Perhaps this is an argument for monitoring of all classrooms activities using video and audio technology, as is the case with some preschools. I think teachers have too much un-monitored influence over school kids and I think parents and taxpayers who pay the bills for public schools have a right to know what’s being taught, and which teachers are earning their pay.
On the other hand, I see the need for young people to have exposure to the real world, within a value system taught by the parents that allow them to EARN respect and self esteem, and even make a few mistakes along the way by which they can learn. I have two college age granddaughters that have been so sheltered and protected that I doubt they have a clue as to the real challenges of life. On an academic level, both are very bright having been tutored through their school years by two engineering parents, and both having left high school early, with all credits, to attend junior college.
I’m sure my daughter was considered a pesky parent, and she did the right thing. She challenged teachers and principals when teachers totally failed to follow curriculum, and even had teachers admit in meetings with administrators that they never even saw the curriculum for the classes they taught
Given the poor school performance, the schools themselves brought on much of the problem they now have with pesky parents.
As usual, many modern parents have gotten it exactly backwards. Children need constant care in their first five years of life and should be with a parent for nurture and character development. After setting that sturdy foundation that will never leave a child, the child is ready for a lenthening of the cord. There is no reason that a 15 year old should have to be under constant surveilance if he/she has been brought up right. No wonder so many of our youth are doing dangerous and stupid things. They have not been allowed their time to grow up, so they seek independence in distructive ways. First, it was daycare, followed by parental paranoia because they didn't have much in-put into the making of their child and don't feel they can trust them.
I feel sorry for the children and teens of today. They were
in competition with the job and the money for their parents' attention when they were young and they lost.
Haven't teachers been whining about wanting more 'parental involvement' for the last couple of decades?
IF parents, as a class, have grown somewhat neurotic, there are a lot of explanations as to how it has happened. IMO--Working parents, kids in daycare, too little time spent with the kids before school age. Concerns about safety in school---from guns to Columbine to pervert teachers. Concerns about teachers with an Agenda. A sense the schools (public) are a rat-infested swamp brimming with delinquents and diseases. Oppressive, over-regulated society leaving little room for kids to be kids...
You're probably right. However, I think parents are getting conflicting signals. One one hand, teachers are protesting the parents over involvement, and on the other they are being told to "get involved" with your kids, be the "anti-drug."
If parents could trust the teachers, there would be less of that "My child could never do any wrong" nonsense. The problem is, what parent could possibly trust your typical Public School lifer? If the parents are convinced the teacher is just marking time and want the kids to sit down and shut up until she makes it to pension eligibility, the parents are going to take matters into their own hands.
Teachers should realize that parents see teachers as more concerned with work rules and the union than teaching the children. Every time they see a teacher gaming the system, this perception is reinforced. This may or may not be accurate, but that is the way it looks to the outside observer.
Reason #3412 to keep your kid out of public school.
I think teachers feel entitled to run the classroom the way they see fit, without a parent having any say. They want control to "educate" since they are the professionals without a parent keeping them accountable. If parents are put out of the classroom, look for the nazi state of education to only get worse.
"Rather, it is to discuss how to be involved in their children's lives, while allowing their children to learn the life skills they will need to succeed in college and beyond."
Parents waited this long to not teach their children about how to live their lives without them. The college's job is not to teach coeds how to make hair appointments. Their job is to teach them how to think objectively. . .and we all know how well the colleges are doing with that assignment.
A companion article?
The schools don't want the parents dictating about the sex-ed GLSEN counselors and so forth.
It would seem that the pendulum of parent involvement on the one hand and parental interference on the other has abrupt swings.
Sex Ed is an issue. And if parents want the say you're thinking that they must be the ones to "get involved"? Well.......duh! It is simply amazing to me to see this in any one of a number of issues in schools, such as goths for example.
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