So who is responsible for a child’s education- the teacher or the parents? I say both. However, some parents do not feel this way. A coworker of mine is experiencing this problem now. There is a little boy in her class who seems to be having trouble keeping up with academics. He attends tutoring and is receiving extra help at school. His mother repeatedly calls the school or comes in to visit and wants to know why he is behind and why the school is not teaching him. The child never returns any homework and does not receive help at home. Flash cards and such have been sent to the mother but she insist that her other children have sports and they are too busy going to games and whatnot to complete work at home. Besides having academic struggles, the child is also a behavior problem. During many tutoring sessions, he has become such a disturbance that the tutor has had to dismiss him from the small group. He does not sit still in class and does not follow directions during instruction.
I have also seen other cases when parents do not feel that they should have a role in their child’s education. We try at school to be a positive role model for students. However, we have the children for six hours five days a week, for ten months out of the year. This does not count holidays and spring break. We are required by state standards to teach many academic skills. We are also required now to teach character and drug education. We cannot possibly “do it all”.
Some children leave this positive environment and go home into a less positive one where the parents are saying very negative things about the teacher and the school and homework. The child comes back to school with these thoughts and a negative attitude toward learning.
Being a kindergarten teacher, I have tried to talk with some parents about readiness skills that they could work with their four-year-old on before he comes to school. On one occasion, I had discussed letter and name identification and I received the reply, “I’m sending him to school for you to teach him that.” I wanted to shout back, “Then I expect you to be teaching him manners, and how to listen, and to be respectful, and about drugs, and safety, and how to tie his shoes, and button his pants, and all of the other motherly things that we now teach in school!” Of course I did not say these things but I feel that I had a right to.
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The NCLB Act
Finding the Right School for Your Child