I'm curious, did your parents sit you down in the evening and teach you what the teachers failed to teach you during the day?
My parents didn't. My math skills were excellent. I was beating children four years my senior in head to head competitions. I read with proficiency at an early age. I had a good understanding of geography, history and a reasoned level of English skills.
I graduated with skills in the upper 80 to 90 percentile across the board, doing work generally acceptable for second and third year college students. All this, and I wasn't a "driven" student. If anything I was in the lower precentile of students who actually gave a damn.
Today I have a job that supports a good lifestyle. I have a nice home, a good wife and a great life.
It baffles me to see folks lament parental involvement in the education process, implying that is why Johnny can't read, can't do simple math, can't express himself and is generally unfit for employment post high school.
My parents exposed me to the school environment. That was the full extent of their involvement in my education.
If you expose children to thirty hours of schooling per week over nine months (excluding holidays), and they don't learn anything, it's not the parent's fault. End of story. I'm living proof.
When the teacher called about my "genius" son and said he was always late with his homework, I told her "homework" was his job not mine. Deal with it.
The truth was that he was so damn smart, homework was unnecessary repetition as it is for most.
At age 21, I got a call: "Mom, had a good weekend. Went to Alabama on a Lear jet with a Colonel and a missile." The brains that controlled the missile was part of his "new job". He graduated Magnum Cum Laude from Clarkson U.
My other two kids had to work hard and did their homework consistently to make the mark. All good kids..moral and kind. My deepest repect flows to all three.
Just a plain ole Mom/Sac
Today, I went to a yearly Labor Day party with a group of people that I used to work with at a defense contractor. All of us are engineers, electrical or software. A few have Mater's degrees and there are several with PhDs.
I would say that it is a fairly educated group of people.
Out of all the people there, we are the only ones that still has a kid in public school. Our daughters are in private, but we can't afford to send my son, yet. Most of the kids go to private Christian school, and one family homeschools their kids.
We all discussed education, and we all agreed that too many kids are being pressured to perform. None of us were as pressured as so many kids are today. We all got great educations without all of the pressure. We also agree that there is more to life than education.
"If you expose children to thirty hours of schooling per week over nine months (excluding holidays), and they don't learn anything, it's not the parent's fault. End of story. I'm living proof."
Did your parents feed you well? Provide a good home?
Did they stay together and help you feel secure and safe?
Were you clean? And did you get enough sleep?
There are alot of exhausted,dirty, and tired kids out there from broken homes who come to school and aren't ready to learn.
This makes it much more difficult for the teachers.
Some teachers try to clean up the kids as best as they can.
The schools are now feeding the kids breakfast.
But it's tough to make up for lack of sleep and lack of security at home.
My parents didn't sit with me for homework when I was younger...but later in highschool it was my dad who got me through advanced math.