The line between what is the responsibility of teachers versus parents is blurred today. Children are being essentially raised by teachers. In child care the caregivers are called “teachers” and these are the adults a child, who is in daycare full-time, sees for the majority of their days. Beyond that, teachers are receiving students who are not ready to learn. As a former classroom teacher, my experiences working in child care and elementary classrooms allowed me to gain insights into the skewed state of determining what is the responsibility of teachers versus parents.
Teachers are limited in ways parents are not, but teachers are having to act as parents these days.
Parents are busy or just are not teaching the same values that once were learned at home. This causes problems in our schools.
When a child is not ready to learn a classroom suffers.
Responsibility of Teachers and Parents
Teachers work with students to impart knowledge and to teach the students the ability to teach others. The teachers’ predicament is that they are being burdened with teaching more than just academics. They are being required to teach proper behavior, desire to learn, respect, and self control, typical values that used to be learned at home.
Kaplan states that the main road block to teachers being effective is that students “are a product of social and economic forces outside the classroom.” In other words, every child has a background that begins with their experiences at home, at daycare, or a combo of the two. Our children take the values we teach into their classrooms. He is saying parenting matters!
‘Society’ (i.e. the media, political officials, ‘talking heads‘ on television, etc.) places the burden of either expanding on a students positive background, or improving upon a negative one, on teachers. Seems to me that we parents have the power to create a positive ‘background’ for our children so that teachers can teach the basics and not take time away from teaching our child to deal with behaviors of children not ready to learn. (I am not referring to children with learning disabilities such as those inherited genetically.) Teaching our children values begins at home and requires a lot of time.
I believe the power lies within parents, to plant our children in this life to thrive and not become a burden on teachers and society. Let’s start at home.
Let’s stay empowered as parents to take on the burden of being sure that our children are primed to learn, ready to excel, and able to teach their peers. (Also known as being a ’good example.’)
Cohen is quoted as saying, “[Improving teaching] is more likely to be a long march than a quick fix…” if we are relying on effective teachers. The author concludes the school-teacher-student situation in this country is “bleak.” Of course it is. Our familial priorities are out of balance. Children are treated as a part time focus rather than a full time job.
I don’t think it has to be this way: if we are empowered to raise our children to love learning, and we can empower other parents to do so whether through our example, or direct conversations, parents will eliminate the burden on teachers because, we, the parents, will take on the burden ourselves.
We stay-at-home moms are home, devoted, teaching these values. We correct the bad behavior when we see it…not hours later. We address the needs and set the example.
The extra time spent with our children from the time they are born, can only help those of us who are trying to be proactive positive examples. Being a stay-at-home mom can help make our parenting actions more clear and more effective reducing the burden on teachers when and if our children enter their classrooms.
The responsibility of teachers and parents is different, and we parents need to remember that.
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This post is featured in A Complete Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms: Parenting Tips you can view all of the articles included HERE.
I believe it is a parent’s job and not a teacher’s. Parents need to maintain that power for themselves so the kids do not learn to be swayed by every authority figure. They learn to respect at home so they go to school and can function succesfully. It all starts at home-not daycare, not school.
That was very interesting. We do follow a far too standardized, collectivist mindset when it comes to education. There is too much control from those who are not responsible for our children, too much labeling. I actually am reading a book entitled "The Female Brain" that leads me to believe that due to how many males comprise ADD/ADHD diagnoses, that we are using a female-centric view of socialization and applying it to males unfairly. Thank you for sharing that link. I will post it as well to share.