# How do we teach our children?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-teach-our-children/206023>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 7, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-teach-our-children/206023 "2003-10-07T08:00:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cbm77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@cbm77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbm77)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-teach-our-children/206023/1 "2003-10-07T08:00:08Z")

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A thread on another board prompted me to post [THIS](http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=NWSG1B9&read=9722).  
(Here is the subject… [HERE](http://www.theonion.com/onion3631/christian_right_lobbies.html).)

However, this educator brings up the real (to me) point of the matter. And I deeply respect what this educator has to say about our current education system .

> [@](#):
>
> You know what I’m talking about. Single parent households, alcohol syndrome babies, crackhead moms, drug addicted dads, drug dealers on every corner, bedrooms that are not bullet proof, poor sanitation, cockroaches and rats sharing the living room, garbage in the hallways and streets, illiterate parents, living quarters that have never seen a book, etc. Is this the kind of world a teacher is going to walk into and magically change?

So my question is; how do our dedicated educators like this fellow deal with these situations now?  
I’m not saying that this hasn’t been happening for a long time. However this is a REAL problem and much worse.

I cannot stress this enough! This is a REAL problem for our educators. Please read the post and perhaps you have some ideas.

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**Author:** ![cbm77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@cbm77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbm77)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-teach-our-children/206023/2 "2003-10-07T08:09:03Z")

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I forgot to post the mans [THREAD.](http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=NWSG1B9&read=9725)

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Peter\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Doubt)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-teach-our-children/206023/3 "2003-10-07T10:54:44Z")

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I suspect that teachers have some sort of reporting/referral resources for identifying at risk children. Beyond that I’m not sure how a teacher is supposed to directly impact a family situation without compromising their duty to educate in a classroom.

Volunteerism is the main thing we could all do. This burden shouldn’t necessarily fall to the teachers alone.

What does the parody article from the humor site _The Onion_ have to do with it?