Some of us may remember the Helen Lovejoy character in The Simpsons who would appear any time some catastrophe befell the town and plaintively wail, “Won’t someone please think of the children?!” The joke here, of course, is that as long as you do something in the name of helping children, it must be right, and you must be virtuous.
To many of us, the disrespect and plain unsuitability of traditional school is blatant and easy to spot - something to which we would never subject our kids. I'm sure it's also clear to some parents who have kids in that system, maybe looking for a way out. But I would bet the majority of parents either don't care enough, or work hard to ignore these issues so as to make their lives "simpler" for the time being. As a former teacher, what's your impression of the number/proportion of parents to whom these factors even register?
That's a good question but a difficult one to answer because, as you say, I cannot speak to how many parents simply ignore the issues because the system is convenient and because they see "good people" populating it. I think most parents who do become aware of any cracks in the system are those whose children are struggling, whether academically, socially, or emotionally to such an extent that they take notice. Unfortunately, I saw almost all of those parents request or be placated by the generally ineffective solutions I mentioned in the article. I think the aggression issue, at least in a physical form, is the one most obvious to parents because it is tangible in many instances. The issue of lying is one of which most parents are not aware and probably would not care anyway because they may lie in similar ways to their children to make their own lives easier. The issue of control, though, is by far the most covert even though it is omnipresent in everything the system does. I cannot recall any parent who complained about that issue or something related, perhaps because they just accepted it as the status quo. After all, what other way is there to learn than by a fragmented bell schedule? Certainly, we do nothing different in our personal lives when we learn.
So, to put a number on it, I'd guess fewer than 5% of parents with children in government schools even consider all three of the issues I presented. Frankly, I think the issue is a lack of imagination and/or knowledge because once parents see alternative methods, defending the traditional method(s) becomes nearly untenable. I have personally asked several parents to describe situations in which their children are excited about learning and then to compare those situations to the organization of the school system. Sometimes the light bulb goes off at that point. Interestingly enough, students seem to have little problem describing alternatives that differ radically from the current system--and what they describe is often what self-directed learning models offer.
To many of us, the disrespect and plain unsuitability of traditional school is blatant and easy to spot - something to which we would never subject our kids. I'm sure it's also clear to some parents who have kids in that system, maybe looking for a way out. But I would bet the majority of parents either don't care enough, or work hard to ignore these issues so as to make their lives "simpler" for the time being. As a former teacher, what's your impression of the number/proportion of parents to whom these factors even register?
That's a good question but a difficult one to answer because, as you say, I cannot speak to how many parents simply ignore the issues because the system is convenient and because they see "good people" populating it. I think most parents who do become aware of any cracks in the system are those whose children are struggling, whether academically, socially, or emotionally to such an extent that they take notice. Unfortunately, I saw almost all of those parents request or be placated by the generally ineffective solutions I mentioned in the article. I think the aggression issue, at least in a physical form, is the one most obvious to parents because it is tangible in many instances. The issue of lying is one of which most parents are not aware and probably would not care anyway because they may lie in similar ways to their children to make their own lives easier. The issue of control, though, is by far the most covert even though it is omnipresent in everything the system does. I cannot recall any parent who complained about that issue or something related, perhaps because they just accepted it as the status quo. After all, what other way is there to learn than by a fragmented bell schedule? Certainly, we do nothing different in our personal lives when we learn.
So, to put a number on it, I'd guess fewer than 5% of parents with children in government schools even consider all three of the issues I presented. Frankly, I think the issue is a lack of imagination and/or knowledge because once parents see alternative methods, defending the traditional method(s) becomes nearly untenable. I have personally asked several parents to describe situations in which their children are excited about learning and then to compare those situations to the organization of the school system. Sometimes the light bulb goes off at that point. Interestingly enough, students seem to have little problem describing alternatives that differ radically from the current system--and what they describe is often what self-directed learning models offer.