Who speaks such Blasphemy you are asking?
Well the New York Times said it, so it must be true. In a may 20th article called Who’s Failing Grade Is It? columnist Lisa Belkin looks at the growing trend of state governments, trying to fix the problem of declining schools by creating laws, which punish parents when their kids don’t perform at school.
The thinking goes like this: If you look at schools that “work,” as measured by test scores and graduation rates, they all have involved (overinvolved?) parents, who are on top of their children’s homework, in contact with their children’s teachers, and invested in their children’s futures. So just require the same of parents in schools that don’t work, and the problem is solved (or, at least, dented), right? (Belkin May 20, 2011)
When I read this I couldn’t believe my eyes. I figured I was going to have to add hallucinating to the long list of my mental deficiencies because what Belkin suggests is just straight up crazy talk.
Who woulda thunk it, parents are going to have to be responsible for how their kids perform in school. That is absolutely amazing! but wait… isn’t that how it is suppose to be? I know that is how I grew up and that is how we are raising our daughters. When our eldest child brought home a less than acceptable report card last term, the conversation we had with our daughter never even came close to broaching on what the teacher did or did not do in the classroom.
On the rare occasion that we speak with our daughters teachers, it is never for the purpose discovering what that teacher has done to serve our children’s needs. The conversations always revolves around what WE as parents and our daughters as a students, can do to improve there academic performance.
I have to say that it is very refreshing to see that people are starting to once again look at parents as agents of learning in their children’s lives. The teacher bashing of the past 30 years has become a bit tiresome and quite frankly, completely illogical. Today’s teachers are more educated than ever before, with the knowledge gained from amazing advances in learning theory over the past 20 years, at their disposal. The teaching profession is constantly improving and moving ahead all the while it is the family that has been going to hell in a hand basket.
Whether legislating how people parent is a good idea? I am guessing it will not go well but the saddest part in all this is that common sense, now has to be legislated.
I do understand what you are saying here. My concern is with the possible idea of parents being held accountable for the results of a curriculum and program that they may not have any say in. They may not even agree with or support the education practices. They may also not have a choice on where they send their children to school. Does it suggest that parents should have full trust in the curriculum and that it is reaching their child’s needs….and so now they just have to do their part as determined by….? Who will hand out their checklist?
It is just too superficial in my opinion, and could get really messy. I am not sure it examines why some of this “common sense” might not be evident. Problems in school are often symptoms of society and I hesitant about approaches that zero in on teachers and parents as the problem. So yes, let’s encourage the necessary conversations with parents in supportive and understanding ways, but I am not sure how “punishment” would encourage positive relationships with the school or ensure more cooperation from parents.
Thanks for your response,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Legislating parenting is a mess in the making and you are right, this puts parents in a difficult spot especially when a family has but one school to choose from that may or may not be to their liking.
What I am pleased about is simply that we might be getting back to the notion that parenting goes beyond the threshold of your home and your child’s success in your hands more than it is in the hands of others
One of the reasons there’s been so much teacher bashing recently, in my opinion at least, has been the complete inability for districts to fire the bad ones. It’s not that most teacher are bad or even that a lot of them are, it’s simply that we see the stranglehold the unions have on local districts and how that inhibits quick decision-making. The perception, true or not, is that teaching has become more about political posturing than actual teaching. Naturally, the blame does not fall solely on teachers and their unions; No Child Left Behind certainly hasn’t help either.
Getting to your point though: I think it’s fantastic that parents are becoming the focus of some pressure. I’m not a fan of legislating parenting, but I do agree that parents need to step up and take the responsibility that should have always been theirs in the first place. School, being an extension of government, are burdened with the prevailing notion among parents that they are a catch-all. Parents have come to believe, in the same way welfare recipients believe, that the government (schools) is responsible for their lives. That’s a shame because it means parents have essentially handed their kids to the state for no other reason than that they are too lazy to do the work themselves. The government, of course, is not designed to take care of everything. It’s only job is to open the doors and create the opportunity for learning. There’s been overreach on the government’s part, and under reach on the parents part. It’s good to see that at least some people are starting to recognize that there needs to be a realignment.
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