Ann Berget wrote: > Change that to "...very little can be done that will succeed in overcoming the lack >of involvement in THOSE families..." and you will have a pretty accurate statement, >not always true in all cases, but mostly true in most cases.
I don't agree. I believe that with a concerted and thoughtful effort the schools and the community can overcome poor parenting. Most people seem to view this issue from a very middle-class perspective. What if a parent is single, poor, illiterate, and working two or three jobs to insure that their children get a good chance to succeed in life? How are they going tutor their kids at home or find the time to go to school events? > If kids were a cash crop, wouldn't you expect that the grower who did the best job >of nurturing a crop would have the best yield? Why do some folks persist in thinking >that teachers alone can outfox the most dysfunctional parent or guardian in bringing >up and educating children? It would be great - especially for kids - if this were >possible, but it's just not reality. There are plenty of stories about teachers who have impacted the lives of the children they teach. I remember one story of a teacher in a farm community in California who worked immensely hard and got many of his minority students into Ivy League schools. He encountered the most hostility from other teachers and administrators who believed that he was "pushing" his students beyond their means. I have a friend who when to school in Taiwan. In high school, he would work in a study group with his teacher after school, go home for dinner and then come back and study again until 11:00. The teacher did this all on his own time and his reward was how well his students did on national exams. How many teachers in Minneapolis have ANY relationship with their students outside of school hours? Teaching shouldn't just be a job, it needs to be a profession. > I certainly don't think that schools are so good that they don't need to improve, >but I have long believed that improving the care and nurturing of young people >outside the school house would probably bring about a lot of academic improvement >inside the school house. Great mythology: No matter how bad of a job the schools do a warm nurturing home will make the difference. This assumption assumes that there's nothing specialized about what the schools do; that reading and math instruction can be absorbed intuitively. This belief seems to ignore the fact that some (or many) minority children do come from warm and nurturing homes, but never learn to read and can't do simple computation. > If we spent as much time debating and promoting more responsible child rearing as we >spend on browbeating the organized educational system, we might make community >progress on this. The problem is that the government does not have control over child rearing practices (because of Constitutional restrictions), but it does have control over the schools. Or would you prefer that Big Government begin dictating what parents do in their homes (as some pseudo-Republicans would seem to want to do)? As long as the educational system continues to ignore effective methods and insist on using failing ones I will browbeating them to my grave. > Just a thought: How would you describe good child rearing? There's a scary >question. Good child rearing requires a psychologically stable home with consistent discipline. Given that basis almost all children can grow up to be normal healthy adults. Loving and caring parents are a plus, but not a necessity. Bob Alberti wrote: > > Why is it unreasonable to assume that I should be able to enroll my child in school > > and expect them to be educated? > > Because you're the parent. So because I'm a parent, I should expect the schools to educate my children?!? > Because it IS unreasonable on its face. Why is it unreasonable? > Because for whatever reason this city and state's legislatures pay teachers > shamefully little money and expect the world of them. Teachers don't make poverty wages. They make more than I made driving trucks and my dispatcher expect the world of me and more. > Because as a citizen you are responsible for the policies of governance, and > if the system isn't working you must do something about it. Well...I tried to do something about it, I ran for school board. Now, I don't have too many realistic options, other than to send my children to private school or home school them. > Because if you want a better life for your kids you're going to have to be > an active participant in their upbringing -- which is NOT an unreasonable > thing to ask of a "parent." Being an active participant in the upbringing of my children does not guarantee them a quality education in the public schools. For another perspective on this see the following editorial in the NYT: "Am I Dad, or a Tutor? " http://query.nytimes.com/search/article-page.html?res=9D05E2DE1330F93AA2575AC0A9649C8B63 > From my perspective too many self-involved adults aren't willing to > sacrifice or exert themselves to raise their own children, and prefer to > point the finger of blame at "the system." > > "Curse that dratted system, it's turning 80% of our kids into janitors!" > > But it's always somebody else's fault, isn't it... > I don't get it. Why should have have to sacrifice to insure that my children get an education? I don't have to sacrifice to insure that my children get good health care. I take them to the doctor and they do their best to insure that they get well when they are sick. I don't need to know anything about medicine and I don't have to pretend that I'm a doctor at home. I guess if you've never really been poor, you just don't understand the lack of choices. I had a girlfriend who just never understood why new assistant professors had so many financial problems. She had saved up enough money to buy a house as soon as she got out of college. She never seemed to consider that having a father who was worth several million dollars and had given her a job as a dental assistant when she was 14 might have had something to do with it. It not always somebody else's fault, but I don't have much ability to control or influence how the public schools manage their responsibilities. But fortunately, at this point in my life, I do have the choice of avoid a poorly managed system (unlike many other parents). Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
