Totally Agree Still Hurting. There is only so much parents can do when their children are in school. I recommend homeschooling your children and I’m sorry that those things happened to you! However, to the parents who absolutely can’t homeschool, I just want to encourage them to do the best they can at being involved and aware of what they are dealing with.

Sorry, anonymous got my feeling stirred up but Gigetiro2012 inspired me to vent.

As a parent I vowed not to let what happened to me happen to my children only to discover how tricky and insidious the public school system really is. I know they may not all be, but the vast majority must be considering the stats and news reports. I know it’s foolish to keep blaming the parents all the time.

It wasn’t my parents who embarrassed me in front of my classmates asking me if we were going to have six more weeks of winter on my groundhogs day, birthday. It wasn’t my parents who ripped my head off in front of my classmates when I asked a “stupid question”. It wasn’t my parents who made me feel stupid year after year by yelling at me, because I must not have been paying attention, because I didn’t understand their way of explaining it. It wasn’t my parents who forced me to put up with bullies torturing me, because it was too difficult to punish the offenders. Maybe I should blame it all on my parents, as they did force me to go to those wonderful public schools with those wonderful teachers who said they cared about me. How dare my parents be fooled. My desire to die throughout most of my school years couldn’t possibly have been because of the teachers and administrators and bullies who seemed to be working together. It must have been my foolish, gullible, not involved enough parents. Thanks anonymous

If you want to say that you feel like our society is going to hell in a hand-basket, as evidenced by unruly, poorly educated kids, that’s fine. Just understand that the older generation of every era of human history has held this belief.

If you think that the US education system is really that bad, then you need to look at the recent study out of one of the Stanford graduate schools that indicates if you remove PISA results of the most impoverished in the USA we perform at or above our international counterparts.

And it’s not as simple an issue of teachers unions, or bad teachers, or NCLB, or testing culture, or…pick your pet peeve.

Yes, this is an issue of parenting, but not in the simple fold that you note. Ask any ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Education) educator and they will tell you they rarely, if ever, meet a parent who does not want to do right by their child. Some adult care-givers just don’t have the luxury to be as involved as you might imply.

This doesn’t mean give up on these kids or families. The question becomes, how do we get the needed tools in the hands of these families?

I love what you want to accomplish here, but please, please, please, if we’re going to educate parents as to what’s out there, let’s do it responsibly.

Thank you Tara! I’m glad you are passionate about your children’s education too.

Thanks for your support! It is nice to find someone who has similar views. We are definitely in the minority on this one.