Question of the Week Archives

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CT
Parents seem even more willing to make us their child's parents. Throw up their hands at their child's behaviors, and ask teachers to provide consequences that should be taking place at home. I cannot take away the computer, the Ipod, the cell phone (when used outside of school), refuse to drive the child someplace, provide money... But if the child's behavior doesn't change, it's somehow the teacher's fault.

Maine
I find that today, parents are very busy being friends with their children and trying to make up the time that they can't spend with them by buying their children everything they want. As a result, the children are very dependent and instant gratification is intense. Their attention span is close to 13 seconds, and they are jaded when it comes to grade 7. The wonder of living is squashed, and they are so used to having things handed to them that they cannot make a decision without someone's help. They have no resilience, and if a disaster struck, they would be unable to cope with it. This worries me greatly.

Their physical strength is very poor, even those who participate in team sports. They seldom play outdoors and when they do, they do not do the physical activities such as my children did--making up their own games, swinging on a rope, jump rope, hopscotch-- it's mostly 4 wheeling or snowmobiling. I wish parents would stop trying to be buddies and go back to parenting. Kids need and want boundaries and are scared to death of taking a risk at which they might fail. Some parents, of course, do set boundaries and their children are the achievers.

The academic pendulum is swinging back to more basics instead of creative spelling and fancy math programs which do not teach the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. The children whose self-respect borders on insolence will be lost when this happens because those basics involve work and unless it's "fun" the students won't do it.

NJ
In my humble opinion, the pendulum is swinging in the wrong direction. Being involved in a child's education is a good thing, however, I see parents huddled over their kids in ways that are extremely detrimental. Many do their homework, make excuses for their lack of iniative, do not make them accountable for their failures, have them involved in far too many afterschool activities, and rarely follow through with action plans that would be most helpful to their child.Many (not all) want the "golden ring" with little accountability.