The problem with schools

It seems like a while now that education has been in the spotlight in our nation. Everyone has their opinion on what will fix the low performance from our students. We've added testing and standards to every possible area and blamed teachers for bad outcomes. In all my classroom management classes in college we were told that if our students weren't learning and weren't under control then it is always the fault of the teacher. This sent up red flags in my brain but at the time I didn't really know why. Don't get me wrong, there are some bad teachers out there. But I know a lot of teachers and probably 90% of them are good at what they do. The ones you read about in the newspaper are outliers. However, as humans we like to blame shift. We've been doing it since Adam. Did you know that a mother is suing McDonalds for putting toys in their kids meals? Because it makes her kid whine and complain and want kids meals. For the love, stop putting YOUR kid in the car, DRIVING to McDonalds, and BUYING the kids meal! Tangent.

As a parent I now understand why those red flags went up. Whose job is it to train children??? Let's search the truth:
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." eph 6:4
"Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." prov. 22:6

And what is "the way he should go"?
"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Col 3:20

What if, instead of bashing teachers and claiming they need more education and accountability, we held PARENTS responsible for the training of their children. I mean, imagine it: a teacher says "quiet now" in a calm and steady voice and the room fell silent. No amount of classroom management will provoke that. Only a child who has been trained at home to obey authority will do the same in a classroom. But this is not the case. Instead, a large portion of a teacher's day is spent organizing kids, asking them to be seated and quiet, telling them to get to work, etc.

Parents are abdicating their responsibility and giving it to daycares and schools. In all my college classes and even student teaching I wanted to shout "it's not my job to teach them to sit and listen, let alone to respect me!" It is the parent's job. I can teach algebra to even the dumbest kid, but it is not my job to teach him the discipline of doing his homework, studying, and paying attention in class. But parents are working 8-9 hour days and kids need at least 10 hours of sleep at night...not much time left to train when you consider all the other necessities of life.

In my experience with high school students, young children, their parents, and lots of teachers, I think it's safe to say that the problem with schools is not just poor education or bad teachers, it's the lack of parents who are willing to do their jobs (as parents) and love their children enough to train them.

Sorry for the rant. This comes after a series of really frustrating occurrences including one of Ian's students calling him gay, a PARENT calling one of Ian's friends (also a teacher) Satan, and the possibility of Ohio cutting spending on education and giving school boards the authority to cut teacher pay by up to 20% as well. The thing that bugged me the most was the parent calling names. Seriously? You don't have to wonder for too long how these kids turned out the way they did. I mean there are a lot of people who don't treat teachers as professionals, but what about treating them like humans???? Grrrr...sorry again blog readers, but I have a small voice and had to let this out somewhere!