Parents: Ignorance or Apathy

In My Humble Opinion
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There has been much in the news regarding declining quality of education and values in regard to our youth. This problem is often layed squarely at the feet of teachers. Though they are responsible for the input of the information, (and agreeably, there are some who need not be in that role), the real problem lies at the hands and responsiblity of the parents and students.:mad:

When a teacher commits to inclusion of ethical issues in the classroom, parents should be proud of a school system which encourages that–not angry because their children are not allowed to skirt honesty and integrity.

Possibly we should, as parents, be concentrating on teaching basic values at home instead of waiting til the age of 5 and hoping that the schools will teach this. Instead of handing a CHILD of 16 car keys and telling them to “go have a good time”, there should be more involvement at home with family and neighbors:smack:

If parental values are askew, how can we expect our kids to have anything better. How can we expect the educational system to correct what parents corrupt with ignorance. Yes, there are many good parents, good students, good schools, good families. Unfortunately there are many more that aren’t. As homes get bigger, families get smaller. As incomes climb, generosity and fellowship decline. As parents demand more of a life for themselves, the children devalue the lives that we’ve given them and the lives of others. As parents concentrate on their own needs, the children lose all they started with. As we demand that our government legislate values, behaviors, better learning, including religious education, etc. possibly instead we should be governing ourselves to set the examples, values, and standards. :frowning:

You may say, you are entitled to building your own life. I say you made a choice when you started a family. A family is a unit and all should be based on that unity. :slight_smile:

In conclusion, we need to stop looking for someone or something to blame. We are losing our kids to our own ignorance and apathy.:eek:

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Gee, what can I add? Nice use of smileys…

God was my Co-Pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him. :wink:

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I consider schools to exist to teach my kids book-smarts, and very little else.

The schools teach what I am unable to, or don’t have the patience to.

But when it comes down to social skills, etiquette, manners, behaviour, that’s my job as a parent.

Its not just a phenomenon in America. We are seeing it more and more over here in Japan. The school newsletters which are sent home every two weeks have some tip about child raising from the principal, in the hopes that parents will actually get a clue.

I still can’t get over the fact that there is a significant number of parents who let their 14 and 15 year old kids stay out all night in the city because they have mobile phones and so are able to be contacted.

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Or, as I say:

You made it. Raise it.

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I had a high school teacher who dealt with uncooperative students in a simple way – if they didn’t want to learn, he let them leave, so they wouldn’t disrupt the rest of the class.

I realized then that education is a two-way street; the teacher must be able to teach, but the student must also be willing to learn. No amount of force can make a student learn something he doesn’t want to know. Blaming teachers for educational shortcomings while ignoring the attitude and desire of the students is only looking at half of the problem, IMO.

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To extend that reasoning a bit further rjung, I think blaming students for their attitudes and lack of desire to learn fails to take into account the role of parents in fostering that desire. I know that every night my mother checked to make sure that my homework was done, she scanned it for errors, she quizzed me on the information, she suggested separate sources I could go to to round out my knowledge. How did she know exactly what my homework was? The teachers had us write down all assignments in a scratchpad that had to be signed by the parent each night, and turned into the teacher in the morning. Kids can be tricky, but there are ways around that. By the time I was in third or fourth grade, my sense of academic responsibility had become ingrained…I would no sooner slack off on a school assignment than I would cease breathing. A student can’t learn without a teacher, a teacher can’t teach without a student, and neither can do much of anything without an involved and cooperative parent. Remove just one of those pieces and your chances at success drop dramatically.

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GrannyJoy Well said.

I couldn’t agree more.

respect for others, the willingness to learn, the ability to see beyond the latest pair of nikes or the hottest new cell-phone, are things a *parent * should learn their spawn.