"But, absent radical action on the part of society to compel people to be better parents"LD, This is the usual refrain handed down by those who are running education today. Have you ever asked which of the bad policies you mentioned that the parents initiated?
These people are talking about my parents and yours. NOT "those" parents. It is NOT the parents who are running the school systems and classrooms. It is the most highly educated people in the world. Even IF parents are strict disciplinarians at "home", what do you think the children "learn" at schools where a common comment upon returning from the principal's office is, "I just recieved my twelfth 'last' chance."
Nah, the problem is NOT "parents", but those who run public education. And, it IS DELIBERATE. Check out the critiques of this book. World Net Daily is also selling it. Peace and love, George.
Actually, the problem is both - I am no fan of the teaching profession (trust me, I could fill a whole thread with my thoughts on teachers) but you have to recognize what teachers are facing in the classroom today. I did not graduate from high school all that long ago, but I was shocked at the way students today act in the classroom today. It is literally like a different planet.
These kids are typically discipline problems, and their poor attitude is often accompanied by some degree of learning disability, and that disability might be as simple as parentally-induced stupidity. In other words, they've been put in front of a TV, never read to, ignored, and not given adequate nutrition for cognitive development for their entire lives. I have dealt with kids whose single parent mom is in jail; I have dealt with kids that have been through a succession of foster homes for most of their lives; I have dealt with kids who live through abuse that you probably could not imagine in your worst nightmare. I have dealt with kids who have no food in their house, because whatever excuse for a parent they got stuck with pissed away the welfare check on alcohol or drugs. I have dealt with kids who have cognitive deficiences directly attributable to fetal alcohol syndrome, or maternal drug use. I have dealt with pregnant sixth graders. I have dealt with child sexual abuse victims. I have dealt with students who live with an endless succession of mom's boyfriends parading through their lives. And I'm just a sub who has been doing this for a few months.
These kids bring a whole lot of baggage to school with them, and someone needs to deal with it. If you leave it to the teacher, you take time away from teaching - and these kids already take a disproportionate share of the teachers time because of discipline or learning problems.
It is not as simple as you would like to believe. School social workers, in my experience, are not there to intrude on the personal lives of good parents, as some posters here would have you believe. They are there to help salvage the kids of people who are lousy parents - crackheads, alcoholics, criminals - Not exactly your typical PTA members, or poster parents for home schooling.