Schools Shouldn't Be Raising Our Children

I read a very interesting letter to the editor in a local newspaper this week which served to underscore some of the problems with the current educational system. It involved an incident that occurred about one year ago in which a principal at a local middle school had a parent arrested. The case was brought before a judge who threw out the charges based on a lack of evidence. As a result, the local police were forced to state that they would no longer become involved in school issues and arrest people at the behest of school administrators/staff unless they actually witnessed the events or saw some concrete evidence of the complaint.

Someone wrote in to a local newspaper to suggest that the principal might have had reasons to do what she did. The writer concluded that, "If she [the parent] hadn't been at the school and instead allowed the teachers to do their jobs, none of this would have ever happened." I do not understand how anyone can feel this way. Parents belong at the schools in far greater numbers than they are now. They can serve a number of purposes and should have a pretty good amount of contact with the children while they are there.

Of course, I'm in Georgia, one of the worst states in the union as far as education is concerned. I know that when I grew up in Florida, parents were everywhere. There were room mothers (men weren't as common 40 years ago) and volunteers of every kind. I remember that when my now 8th grader was in kindergarten, some parents tried to organize a volunteer schedule for the classroom. That's the kind of thing I remember when I was a child. This parent was told she and the others were not wanted in the classroom.

I suppose part of the problem lies in what the teacher's job really is. I always thought it was to teach academic subjects and to provide a good example of adult behavior. Now teachers are expected to teach everything. The problem is, when you give them the ability to take control of our children's lives, they will do just that. Is that what we really want?

My school system has a slogan, "Together We Teach." That shouldn't mean that we just pay the bills, and they take our children. It should mean that parents are everywhere. Imagine hallways full of volunteers. That would substantially reduce violence in the schools. Think of how volunteers could help teachers work with children who present special challenges. If teachers could tell recalcitrant students that their parents are just down the hall, do you really believe the misbehavior would continue? Volunteers who spend time in the schools can see the physical problems and lack of resources. When it comes time to fund education, they will be more willing to do just that. Volunteers could do before/after school duty and lunch duty thereby giving teachers more time to do what they need to do in order to teach more effectively.

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