Are parents at fault for poor schools in the U.S. and Canada?
Or at least partly to blame?
President Obama spent some time in his State of the Union address recently, talking about education.
There is always a great deal of talk about education, of course, but much less action by governments.
But some action is not dependent on schools. Parents have role to play and some of them are simply not playing it.
MORE DEMANDING PARENTS NEEDED
We cannot improve education without “more demanding parents,” President Obama said in his State of the Union address.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently mused that he “wished our biggest challenge” was “too many parents demanding excellent schools.”
Authors Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, (they are married and she is the author of The Tiger Mother) say that some parents are more focused on building self-esteem than demanding excellence.
I agree with that part pf her argument but not with most of the rest of it.
Self-esteem is a worthy thing but much of the stuff written about self-esteem is flatulent nonsense. It is fraudulent, self-defeating and stupifyingly wrong-headed.
Are schools really doing poorly because parents don’t care enough to push their children and their schools to excel? Or are educators shifting responsibility to parents who are ill-equipped to take on such a role?
There’s a great discussion on the Opinion pages of The New York Times, too.
Both the main article and the comments link is just below.
Got a comment? If education is on your radar, this might get you riled up!
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