Blame the Parents

Why of course it’s the parent’s fault if a child comes to school and misbehaves and doesn’t do their work. Parents must be engaged and make their kids education apriority if they don’t children won’t be successful and sadly we have a lot of unsuccessful kids.

Sadly what an old and tired argument

If only little Johnnies father would have taught him right from wrong he could have been something. If only little Suzie’s mother would have read to her she might have made it. That seems to be the mindset of society and it’s a mindset we cannot afford.

I don’t know how schools fix families or neighborhoods but I do believe that when schools abdicate their responsibilities they can make families and neighborhoods worse. Schools must give children a snapshot for how we want society to work. If we believe hard work should be rewarded we can no longer push kids along without the skills they need to be successful. If we think people should be responsible for their actions then we must give consequences for bad behavior. If we don’t show children these things at the very least in schools then where else are they going to learn them? Friends that is the bare minimum that schools should be doing anyways and sadly we are not even doing that.

It also doesn’t help that we overload kids with too many classes and classes they aren’t interested in. It’s not a stretch to think that is a kid is overwhelmed, feels helpless and disengages because they aren’t interested, they won’t do well. However changing all that would take a little more than the bare minimum.

How can we sit back and just blame the parents when the mechanisms such as school that society has put in place to help them are failing too. The way I see it, there is plenty of blame to go around.