Who is responsible for you education
By bobmnu
@bobmnu (8157)
United States
April 28, 2007 10:20am CST
As we start to get the results of state wide testing the discussion starts again on the failure of the Public Schools. The schools say they need more money to all the things that are expected of them. My question is who is responsible for the education the parents or the teachers at school?
4 responses
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
18 Oct 07
The parents and teachers are both responsible, the parents must insure that the kids do their homework and have what they need to accomplish their goals in school - books, paper, a quiet place to study, adequate sleep, etc.
The teacher must teach and give the homework and make sure they inform the parenets when their is a problem early on in the game.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
18 Oct 07
I agree that we all play a role and I think there are some things that can be done to help the Children. When I was a High School Principal one of the things that the teachers did was to encourage students to challenge themselves. For example an Algebra teacher would tell students that next year when you take Geomerty or this will be helpful we=hen you take Chemistry. This had the students with the mind set of I will be taking advanced courses. It worked in all classes and students did not look for the easiest way to get through school. In one school we had 75 students in the senior class and 90% had taken Algebra, a majority had 3 years of advanced math and 3 years of lab science. We even had almost 1/2 of them take Physics (usually this was the top 10-15% of the class. All we did was to encourage the students to challeng themselves and take the more difficult classes. Even in the Vocational or Technical fields students were taking the advanced courses and going on to technical College where many tested out of the entry level courses. It did not require a lot of extra work or massive changes in teaching - all it required was every one encouraging the studetns to try the more difficult classes.
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
20 Oct 07
I wouldn't just look at it from just the stateside perspective. There are also comparisons to other nations and their educational systems. Stateside usually ranks in the middle or sometimes below average depending on the testing.
Aussies has a good point. It does start with the parents. They have to be involved. They have to encourage their kids. They have to have concern for the school district and they must be the ones pushing for better schools/education.
Then the teachers, they have to be paid more but it should have some basis on results (not just test results but also student and parent reaction). Of course the percentage basis for each of these factors wouldn't be major, something that can be adjusted to reasonable levels in case of unusual elements (disruptive classes, students or parents).
The curriculum needs adjustment and improvement as well, not subtraction. Adjust the tests and scores to actually matter in education. Much of the current status of education involves: making tests simpler for the weakest links in class; using excessive grade curves; using too forgiving grade scales; trying not to "hurt feelings" with red marks; pointless do-nothing classes in some districts; and having oblique focuses in schools (more on sports and not as much on academia).
And to those that think Stateside needs more money to fix the problem, that's been tried for 20-30 years and the result is little change or backwards progress. I do admit some schools are in need of rehabilitation or replacement and that some schools/school districts are in need of better facilities. However, in terms of GDP spending stateside spends the most on schools than any other country, only tied with Switzerland. Plenty of countries spend less on education and end up with some very good results, typically much better than stateside.
http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,2340,en_2649_201185_35341645_1_1_1_1,00.html
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
18 Oct 07
It start with the parents.
It is your responsability to teach your child about life and how the system works. It is only when your child has been taugh by you to be civilise that you can send him away to have other people teach him/her new things.
You have to teach your child discipline, respect and the importance of learning.
A teacher does not have the means to force a child to learn. He can only teach to those who are willing to learn.
Not every children are good learners... even when their parents have done all the right things. You either have the brain... or you don't. I'll go as far as saying that it is genetic. If you did badly at school... and you want him to do better than you... don't punish him for not doing any better than you. He cannot help it if he has your genes.
@moondan (712)
• China
18 Oct 07
I think the responsible for the child's education is not only the teacher ,but also the parents and themselves.
When i was young,i respected my teachers very much .some was very strem to me,others were kind.i like math and i also do well in it.It is attribute to my math teacher in elementary school,she always encouraged me and made me interested in it.Parents played a important role too.I need their support.
