…but so will you. Or else. Under a new vision for schools, parents could be fined if their children are unruly in class and their education is unsupported at home.
U.K. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has published a new ”white paper for education,” setting out plans for schools to get annual report cards, similar to New York City’s accountability system. The Guardian newspaper says the plan gives British parents a guarantee that their child will have ”a place at school or college for their child until the age of 18, a promise of one-to-one tuition if their child is falling behind and a personal tutor throughout secondary to give them pastoral support.”
In return, parents will be under new obligations to support their child at school. They will have to sign stricter home school agreements and face fines of up to £1,000, enforced by the courts, if they fail to meet the conditions.
“There must be real consequences for those parents who don’t take their responsibilities seriously,” said Mr. Balls in an interview last week. Interesting concept. Wonder how it’ll be enforced. Or if it can be.
It’s time, no it’s past time, this happened here in the US. Free public eduction in most states until eighteen? How about putting some responsibility where it belongs, with parents and the home? Enough with dumping kids at the schoolhouse gate when they’re five and thinking the school is going to assume the bulk of the duty of appropriately preparing our children for their adult lives.
Nine hundred hours a year sounds like a great deal of time for schools to have our youngsters. However, the other five thousand waking hours per year kids spend at home under the direction of parents/guardians. This greater than five to one ratio should demand much ore accountability from the folks raising our children. And if they’re not pulling their share of the load there should be consequences.
Paul: “This greater than five to one ratio should demand much ore accountability from the folks raising our children.”
Children are the responsibility of the parents, not the collective “us” or the state. The children aren’t “our” children. They are their parents’ children. To claim children as property of the state is a road we don’t want to go down.
In the article, I never saw specific tasks or goals laid out for UK parents. Are they talking about the parents helping with homework, or getting the kids to bed at a decent hour, or disciplining for behavior problems – what exactly do they want from parents – the article doesn’t say.
Sure, some parents view schools as free childcare while they work and then – for whatever reason – don’t get involved further. I was raised by my divorced mother, and I can never remember her helping me with homework…ever. (I did go to private school.) Her parents didn’t help her either. We both did fine. However, with the divorce rate so high, don’t you think there are many kids in single parent homes, where the parent might work more than one job. So, you’re going to fine them or jail them for not helping with homework or not attending a PTA meeting?
Also, in some places, the schools have basically told parents they have no say in what their children are taught and the school is the parent once their child enters the building. Parents who volunteer to help are relegated to cutting out pictures for billboards or other menial tasks where they have no contact with any student, much less their own child. Many parents may feel intimidated by all of the “new” stuff their kids are learning that they don’t remember learning in school.