Misconception #5: The schools are being held responsible for the failures of parents

Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.

---

I will not deny that parents these days are doing a horrible job. The schools use that reality as a scapegoat for many of their own problems. What the schools are really demanding from these over-schooled parents is to force their kids to dedicate their childhoods to their grades. Raising good kids who have strong values, personal strengths, and the ability to push society forward is irrelevant to the demands being made by the teaching profession.

Over the years, the schools have taken away more and more rights from parents. They have also tried to take away more and more of their students’ childhoods. The have effectively seized the responsibility of raising children from their parents. When these children prove themselves inadequate, we always blame the parents. We never blame the teachers who removed the children from their homes.

We have reached a point where a number of parents (who have more schooling than ever before) legitimately fear educating their children. They feel that if their children are well educated before entering school, schooling will be too dull. If these children find schooling to be too dull, they might not be able to motivate themselves enough to do their schoolwork. If they don’t do their schoolwork, they will likely start to fail classes. In recent years, “good” parents (in the eyes of teachers) have legitimately made an effort to restrict their children’s educations. That’s what society wants, but that’s not what society needs.