When I was in school, the teachers ran the show. Now days, the parents do. If it’s too cold, school is cancelled. If there’s too much water on the road, school is cancelled. It snows 2 inches, school is cancelled.
Is this because it is too dangerous for the kids to go to school? No. It’s because the school districts are scared that they will anger parents and in return, they will face lawsuits or lose parental funding and support.
Please don’t misunderstand. I love my son being home, but I also love him getting an education. Therefore, unless there is a valid reason to cancel classes for the day, he needs to be in school.
Speaking of education, my son no longer gets homework. He hasn’t brought home a single worksheet since the school year started, so we’ve been creating our own homework and reading assignments. Recently, I asked his teacher about this and her answer was, “Parents were getting angry with the extra work in the afternoons, because they didn’t want to spend the time helping their children do it.”
Parents don’t want to spend time helping their children to succeed? There is something very wrong with that picture. The teacher also said that when they used to send homework, either it wouldn’t be turned back in or it would, but with the parent’s handwriting. Only a couple of children out of the entire class would complete it themselves and bring it back. So in an effort to please the parents and also to stop wasting paper, they stopped sending homework.
School is about educating the children. It should not be about pleasing the parents. More importantly, parents should want their children to be educated and should never hinder their success. This whole situation completely baffles me. This is not the educational system I had when growing up. We went to school. We learned. Our teachers weren’t afraid of angering our parents.
Since my son’s teachers won’t be sending homework, I made a point of asking for some. I was informed that the extra work won’t count towards credit, but as I told the teacher, “Credit or not, send it on. The more, the merrier.”
So that’s exactly what she did. Stuffed in his backpack yesterday, was a stack of worksheets including math, spelling and reading comprehension. With a perplexed expression he set them on the counter and said, “My teacher said you asked for these.” He was not nearly as thrilled as I was. He may not appreciate the extra work now, but he will later in life.
I told him that the smartest people in the world didn’t get smart without working at it. They studied, read and learned constantly. He says he wants to be like “Einstein”. If so, then he better get to work.
How do you feel about parents ruling the schools?
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Thank you for commenting. Yes, success should be top the priority in school.
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I don’t have children in school any more. But homework was part of the education system. I know my daughter sits with her daughter every night doing homework. And it is now part of their learning process, as it was with my daughter, as it was with me. We don’t get smarter by doing less!
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It definitely needs to be a part of education. It’s good to know that some people are still getting it. I completely agree with you that we don’t get smarter by doing less.
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That’s just nuts…
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Yes it is.
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The First Born was always good with her homework. With the middle child it was a constant battle. The Tween does her homework but fails to see the value in it. She generally does it whilst laying on the lounge room floor and we have been called in to help on numerous occasions.
Whilst I don’t agree that parents should be calling the shots in their children’s education I do believe there needs to be a cut-off point for the amount of homework that some children receive. And if a child is struggling with something then it makes sense to have homework. It’s all about teaching self discipline and meeting goals and deadlines as much as it is about learning.
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I understand and agree with your point about having a cut off. There was one year my son was bringing home so much homework that I didn’t know how we could possibly finish it all. Discipline, goals and responsibility are very important reasons also. Homework is a great tool to learn those.
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Parents should advocate for their children, which is what you did. As far as the homework? I don’t know, it depends on the child. To my older two, it was nothing but tedious repetition of what was taught in class. To the youngest, it was a nightly fight, tedious or not. I don’t know what the answer is, but a great education system should be run in conjunction with parents. Obviously, some parents aren’t doing such a great job in helping their children succeed.
There should be no caving to the bully parents!
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If it’s just repetition and they already know the work well, then I can see how the homework could be frowned upon. But, if it’s different or to add to/expand upon what they’re learning, then I think it’s beneficial.
I do agree that a good system should include both the teachers and parents. It needs teamwork to be truly beneficial.
My thing, is that if the kids need the work to help them catch up or improve skills, then why would a parent stop that? But, as you said we can advocate for them and make sure they get what they need to succeed on an individual basis.
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It’s that teaching to the middle. Too many are slipping through the cracks. Class size has something to do with it and the burdens of No Child Left Behind and whatever it is that Obama is “promising” now. Our politicians promise, promise, promise—then fight about whether or not to fund their lofty dreams. Their bickering is hurting our children. As parents, we will have to keep fighting. Maybe one day, someone will listen and act.
As far as my older two finding homework tedious, I used it as lessons about life. Sometimes in our jobs, there will be things we will have to do which make no sense to us, or seem tedious, but they have to get done. Even if they are an entrepreneur, the will find that they have some tedious functions. In other words – suck it up. :),
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oh, I need more coffee – I see some mistakes in my reply to your reply. 🙂
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The (broken) promises of politicians – that’s a whole other topic. I have a feeling I’d get all sorts of backlash from my opinions on our government. You’re right though. A lot of kids are just slip through the cracks. I’ve seen kids pass grades who never should have progressed to the next level.
I like how you used the tedious homework to teach your children about the ‘real’ work. There will be plenty of that in any job they work at.
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Do you live in my town? It sounds like you do. I swear, the kids are out of school more than they’re in school. And then everyone wonders why the young generations are so ignorant and antisocial. Let’s figure this out. Oh ya, they haven’t gotten an education.
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That’s exactly what I say. My son and to be out of school all the time. I went to school in this same town and we were never out this much. It makes a huge difference in their education. They need to be in school. Isn’t that what the “school year” is for?
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there are a lot of people these days that are really questioning if we need to revamp the educational system; I personally think that too much of school is stuck in yesteryear and we need to reevaluate the goals we are trying to achieve in education.
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“The goals we are trying to achieve” – The number one goal should be teaching them all they need to know in order to succeed. Success never comes easy. I think too many kids slide right through school these days without hardly learning anything. We need more teachers, so that the student to teacher ratio can be lowered. More individualized attention is what they need in my opinion.
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