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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Teachers need help from parents for kids to succeed
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Who is responsible for a child’s education?
I teach high school history in the Clark County School District and here are the facts: Students are in school seven hours a day, 180 days a year, not counting the one hour per day used for passing from class to class in middle and high school, and lunch time and time in recess in elementary school.
Kids are in school 1,260 hours a year. There are 8,760 hours in a year; therefore kids are in school 14 percent of the time available each year. The parents control the other 86 percent of their children’s time. What are they doing with it?
The most common reason for failure in school is lack of effort and a corresponding lack of consequences. Where are the proposals that mandate parental responsibility? Although programs designed to improve student achievement are needed, they will be and are hamstrung by a lack of parental involvement in motivating their children’s efforts.
Lack of parental involvement is only one factor in poor academic achievement, but it is a huge, neglected problem. The learning process requires practice, which can be accomplished only at home. If a child does not practice the critical thinking skills taught in each subject, that child will not learn.
Our society needs a balanced approach to education that includes and mandates participation of all stakeholders. I challenge our local and national societies to make the education of our children our top priority. As a classroom teacher, I promise to do my part with my 14 percent. Will the parents and the rest of our society step up and do their part with the more important 86 percent?
Discussion: 1 comments so far…
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"Where are the proposals that mandate parental responsibility?"
I am not sure what to make of this comment or the 86/14 argument(hallow).
Any ideas?
Not meaning to be politically incorrect, but unfortunately the wrong people are having most of the children in America and Canada. In Canada the welfare mothers and the refugees spew out child after child. In America it is the illegals and the welfare mothers.
Those children start out with two strikes against them (poverty and poorly educated parents who place little value on education).
It is too bad that a licence to have a child was not required, with sterilization (for both the mother and father) the penalty for breeding without a licence.
I know that sounds terrible, but both of our countries are going down the tubes fast.
Sure Canada, the "right" people (like you) need to make sure the "wrong" people don't have too many babies.
Sieg Howdy, baby!
Thank you. Finally someone else says something that makes sense about education.
If you want birth control imposed on the general public you have to give them incentives. If you have lots of chillun in this country you get a tax credit. If you have no chillun you get to pay the tax credit to the fornicators.. I say take away all credits for having chillun. If we want the population to grow we can ease immigration criteria. Power to the Brown!!!
"chillun' and more "chillun?" Is that the same thing as children and more children?
I'm not sure taking away the tax credit for having children will do anything in terms of reducing the birth rate among the poor...
The poor don't think that way....
Of course, better education in terms of birth control might help, but try getting that on in our public schools.
The far right religious nuts will come after you with their Bibles, their rope and their tar & feathers...
EL_Lobo catches on! He's hip! He knows what chillun are. Taking away tax credits for having kids just might work. The present system is not working. You are wrong. The poor do think that way? Better education in terms of birth control? Not likely. The only way the poor would attend the birth control classes is if you paid them. Upon giving birth the mother of the child receives WIC. That pays for Milk, cereal, formula. So right off the bat we're feeding them. Welfare checks ensue. Cash assistance for an place to live if the Momma is 18 or older. Money for transportation is also available.
Don't you mean the far left religious nuts will come after me? The situation now is we are paying for the chillun, we just aren't getting the sex.
Welfare kills peoples souls.
I would like to see research that compares students of 50 years ago (when I started school) to those of today.
When I was a student, schools were allowed to use corporal punishment. Also, teachers quite often would divide a class into "A" and "B" groups based upon test scores. There was fierce competition to qualify for the "A" group. Getting in that group was not based on a curve but on minimum test score requirements. Staying in that group was even harder than getting into it.
It seems today that students are too fragile to apply such standards to.
Back when I was 4 years old I had an older sister in the 1st grade. When she came home from school every day she taught me what she had learned that day. By the time I started school I already knew how to read and write, I knew the alphabet, the colors, and all the numbers. and I knew how to behave in school.
My family always put importance on education. They also supported the teachers in their endeavors also. Once when I was in 2nd grade I misbehaved and the teacher gave me a few thwacks on the hands with her ruler. I went home and complained to my mother that I was punished and she also gave me a whack or two. When my dad came home he was told of my misbehavior and HE whacked me a few. I never sassed a teacher after that. Respect for authority is learned at home, or it should be.
Amen. If we don't step up to our responsibilties as parents, no amount of money we give our educators will achieve long-term successful results. Parents have an obligation to prepare their children for adulthood. The number of parents who don't know the names of their children's teachers, who don't attend open house meetings, who don't oversee homework, and who don't get involved in school activities with their children is appalling.
Yes, I know we have language, poverty, and homelessness problems. Yes, the state of Nevada funds education inadequately. Yes, parents who still have their jobs are working longer hours for less money. But education starts - and ends - at home. Parents: buck up and do your job.