Teachers versus Parents

[Virgil]

That really does depend on how receptive the parents are. Also, a lack of education does not necessarily make a bad parent. Neither of my parents have any qualifications, both coming from working-class, inner-city backgrounds, and yet they have always been extremely helpful and supportive of me.

Agree that a parent's education has nothing to do a child's enthusiasim for education. Both my parents came from small town rural society in southern Italy and neither had more than a grade school education. But for some reason they really understood the importance of education and did everything, including letting us buy books when they barely could make payment on thier bills, to encourage learning. Of their three children, two have PhDs and I'm the slacker with only a masters.

[mal4mac]

Agree that a parent's education has nothing to do a child's enthusiasim for education. Both my parents came from small town rural society in southern Italy and neither had more than a grade school education. But for some reason they really understood the importance of education and did everything, including letting us buy books when they barely could make payment on thier bills, to encourage learning. Of their three children, two have PhDs and I'm the slacker with only a masters.

In the UK the immigrant Asian population has the reputation for being educationally supportive in this way. The white British working class population (in general, from my experience) has little 'love for learning'. The parents don't encourage children to learn, instead parents & kids view teachers as authority figure out to spoil their fun by trying to cram their heads with boring facts when they could be watching football, drinking, or listening to pop music. When working class adult discussion moves on to teachers, in the pub, or at home in front of kids, the tales usually told of teachers are of strict fascists, lazy good-for-nothings, and child molesters, and of the 'uselessness' of 'all that school learning'. Nothing is said about the (many) good teachers and life enhancing education that the few, happy students somehow manage to access, against the flow of negative, anti-educational propoganda.

[Virgil]

In the UK the immigrant Asian population has the reputation for being educationally supportive in this way. The white British working class population (in general, from my experience) has little 'love for learning'. The parents don't encourage children to learn, instead parents & kids view teachers as authority figure out to spoil their fun by trying to cram their heads with boring facts when they could be watching football, drinking, or listening to pop music. When working class adult discussion moves on to teachers, in the pub, or at home in front of kids, the tales usually told of teachers are of strict fascists, lazy good-for-nothings, and child molesters, and of the 'uselessness' of 'all that school learning'. Nothing is said about the (many) good teachers and life enhancing education that the few, happy students somehow manage to access, against the flow of negative, anti-educational propoganda.

You practically describe the same in the US, though i will say it varies widely between the native born population. Also here is the remarkable, and I really mean remarkable, achievements from the asian students.

I was being quite serious about the attitude expressed in that Pink Floyd song. People truely believe it.

[SFG75]

So what should we do about it since we recognize the need for an alteration of this theme? What can you and I personally do about it?

Very good question. The best thing is to get involved. Become a part of the PTA. Attend parent-teachers conferences and have regular contact with the teacher via e-mail or phone. This doesn't have to be a daily thing, but an exchanging of notes or e-mail on ocasion to "check in" in is good.

I'm a teacher of ten years and I have to say that it wasn't until I became a parent that I more fully understood the feelings that parents of my students had. Children are the asset that you love and cherish the most. It isn't right to be offended, but there is no greater connection than that between a parent and a child. With that being said, that also means that you as a parent should take a step back and help work with the teacher for the betterment of your child and his/her education.

Quite frankly, I don't mind the parent who chews my butt because their kid earned a 94% on a test. I'm more bothered by the parent of the failing for 9 weeks student who has received "down slips" and who skips parent-teachers conference.

[Scheherazade]

Quite frankly, I don't mind the parent who chews my butt because their kid earned a 94% on a test. I'm more bothered by the parent of the failing for 9 weeks student who has received "down slips" and who skips parent-teachers conference.

DNA Parents = Parents who Do Not Attend

[Gladys]

We talk all the time about how schools are failing etc, but what responsibility do we give to parents who are literate and do not teach their children from the cradle?

Teaching in a classroom with a dozen or more students is usually problematic for all concerned because unruly students, with bad attitude, abound. Apathetic parents are the rule and teachers soon learn to treat parents with unhelpful suspicion.

Ideally, children would spend less time at school and more time learning in the company of parents and friends. But most parents fall far short of Asian parents in their commitment to home education, and with wives now working, home education is problematic.

In time, many parents can be encouraged, like Asian parents, to take a greater role although Western cultural bias will deter most. The ingrained belief that every child needs regular success experiences is also a barrier to learning; every child needs realism seasoned with perennial patience and encouragement. Sadly teachers and parents rarely co-operate in this.

[isidro]

I work two days a week, etc, but it seems that if a person loves education and learning for themselves will naturally teach their own children with a vengeance. Does anyone know anything of the Asian manner of teaching one's children? Since yoga has caught on with such heated popularity, perhaps promoting that type of pedagogy might do the same. A child needs first and foremost to be reared in a situation that constantly has the virtues of learning in everything they do. As an exec really and university professor wannabe, I simply incorporate my kids in what I do myself and thus they learn remarkably in several languages, classical music and the like, according to my own interests. How can we have parents do this?