I’ll explain the title for this post in a moment. First, I want to point out that if anyone would contend (as I sometimes do) that twitter and microblogging have wiped out the engaged discourse that was once the hallmark of good blogging, I direct you to read through Jim Groom’s writing, and the ensuing comments, on Networked Study. If you follow that link and get so engaged in the conversation that you don’t come back here, I won’t be offended.
Now back to the explanation of the title. About 18 years ago, I was finishing up my first teaching contract. The principal made sure he had some time to sit down with me at the end of the year to see how my first year had gone. Something he said stuck with me all this time. “Rob, teaching is a funny kind of career. It’s a strange kind of job because we teach other people’s children – instead of parents teaching their own kids, they send them to us.” I think what stuck with me about this was that it is kind of strange, isn’t it, that I earn my living by teaching other people’s children, usually the children of people I don’t even know. I don’t think there are any other species of parenting animal (that is, those who care for their young through a period of infancy) that will let an unknown and unrelated member of the population raise their young. Even amongst humans, for most of our history as a species we taught our own. Children learned by being with their parents and learning what their parents did.
I was reminded of this as I was reading Will Richardson’s Opportunity, Not Threat (which Will wrote partly in response to the conversation resulting from Jim’s post I mention above). He is drawn to this thought from Michael Feldstein:
It’s hard to change the culture of education without getting the kids before their thinking processes begin to ossify, but in order to do that, you have to contend with their parents who, however well-intended, didn’t have the benefit of the kind education you’re trying to provide their kids and often see it as more of a threat than an opportunity.
Maybe part of the threat seen by parents is that some of the current ideas about K-12 education reform imply that teachers stop having sole or prime responsibility for the childrens’ learning (resulting, no doubt, in a garrison mentality amongst teachers who see their sphere of influence being eroded) . This implies that some of that responsibility maybe goes back to the parents. I don’t think parents know how to teach their kids the way we used to – showing and teaching the skills and knowledge that we used to carry out our activities of daily living. I have a pretty shallow set of skills outside of what I do at work. I can cook a few decent meals, I can take care of some necessary household tasks, but for anything bigger than that – like building an addition to the house or planting and keeping a garden, I’m totally clueless. (Notable exception – I can configure and secure a home data network pretty damn well. It might not be too impressive, but it’s the best skill that I have). I don’t know if I have many life survival skills to show my kids, and I suspect many parents feel the same way. Giving me more responsibility for teaching my children life skills is much more frightening than giving me the strange job of teaching a narrow, specialized set of knowledge domains to other people’s (or mine – The Girl™’s teacher is sometimes surprised at how much she already knows about science).
So, what are your thoughts? Is part of the resistance on the part of parents a reluctance on their part to take back some of the responsibility for their children’s learning?
Enough writing. Time to get some lunch ready for the kids. That’s a responsibility that I can deal with.
During the brief period I spent teaching high school English in Toronto I had to call the parents of a girl who was skipping my class. Her father said that it was my responsibility to get his 15-year-old to come to school. If a parent won’t even take responsibility for this, how can we expect them to take responsibility for any of their child’s education?
I may be the lone voice in the wilderness here — but feel that I need to speak up on behalf of parents. While I know you guys see some pretty awful situations in your line of work, I tire of hearing parents being painted with the same brush.
I love to learn with my kids. Like you, my skill set is pretty narrow and I used to worry about that a lot but does it really matter what they are learning about? Isn’t more about showing how to learn, to problem-solve, to enjoy? That can be achieved whether you are planting a garden, securing a home network, cooking supper or unclogging a drain(ok maybe not the enjoy part on that one). I think parents need that kind of reassurance. That we don’t need to be algebra whiz’s, poetry mavens, or science geeks to contribute to learning. We simply need to be wholly present in our kids lives.
See, I would not say that teachers have the “sole” or “primary” responsibility for my child’s learning NOW and the arrogance that they think they do is part of what drives a wedge between parents and teachers/school. The fear is not that, as a parent, I will have to take on more responsibility for their learning, it’s that I’m going to have to take on more responsibility for their schooling. If I have to do that when will I have time to learn with my children in the way that reflects who I am, who our family is, what our community is about?
I don’t usually reply to the comments someone has left on someone else’s blog before the blog’s author does, but you raised good points, Penny. I was trying to paint all parents with the same brush, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. The problem is that there are too many parents (and I’m not saying they are the majority) who have either become too focused on being their child’s friend or just don’t take enough interest in their child’s learning that I worry about what could happen to those students. I think that it should be the parents who teach their children about why education is important.
As for what you said about taking responsibility for “schooling” and not having time for their learning, that is a great point. I hated when my dad tried to help me with my math homework, but loved when he taught me about things in his garden.