Teachers to grade parents.

Nick

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    I was watching the news and saw something interesting. There's a bill lawmakers are voting on in Florida relating to students. But, it's not your typical bill.

    If the bill passes, teachers will grade the student's parents involvement with their child for school related functions.

    Source & Article: https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/26/florida.grading.parents/index.html

    Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Would you support this and say that it's fair, or do you feel that it isn't within the teacher's rights to grade parents on their involvement - while important - in their student's education? Do you think this should be a national law if it's passed? Is it unconstitutional?
     
    Yeah... I don't think this is gonna fly. :|

    It kind of sounds like a good idea, but I just really don't see it working out. Everyone has a different idea of parenting and unlike teaching where most teachers have to follow a (fairly) strict curriculum, you can't grade how a parent involves themselves in their child's life.

    A student can be graded like that because they have 8 hours a day in a school-setting where there are concrete expectations and the teacher is there to work with the child and review how s/he is holding up to the standard. But even based on those three criteria, how can you judge that? You'd have to ask each child everyday whether they got enough sleep & ate breakfast, which... okay. That's weird but doable, I guess. The homework thing... yeah, that's the parent's job but how do you measure if a child is ready for an exam? Sort of just seems like a cop-out way for teachers to go "well, I taught them all I could... if your kid doesn't get it, obviously you didn't spend enough time studying with him/her!" And regular communication? Alright, if the teacher is making time for it and the parent isn't responding, that's fine but I don't think it needs a grade. o_O;

    I think it's silly.
     
    This is certainly interesting. While parents should take the step up and opportunity to be more involved with their child's education and school, I don't think a teacher's grade will change anything. Perhaps to parents who are critical to how they are looked upon by their child's teacher(s) might take the given grade and work to improving it for themselves, but there are many parents out there who are far too busy or who just don't care to be more involved with their child's education or school matters other than what they have to do.

    Not to mention, who is to say the teacher has the given title to grade a parent's involvement. They couldn't base their grade off of their own standards, but standards that meets the parent's lifestyle.

    To be honest, while I understand trying to get parents involved, the focus should be on the kids more so and trying to enhance their learning skills grades, and knowledge in matters beyond their level. Teaching them skills so they can strongly work independently as well as with their peers is something I consider more important than having the child heavily depend on their parents. As well as being able to handle themselves for the future.
     
    One big issue I have with this law is that parents who are actively involved in their child's life but have an underachieving child would get unfairly graded because the child wasn't giving enough effort themselves as a student. That could happen. I'm not saying it will, but it could, because there are cases where a teacher makes assumptions about a student's parents before meeting them.
     
    First of all I think the Teacher should meet the parents when they aren't busy and get to know them a bit to see if they do try to get their underachieving child to do something but are unsuccessful or if they are particularly responsible for doing so...
     
    That's a bit of an iffy situation. Everyone is different. Some children rely on their parents' involvement and caring, while others are independent enough where it isn't very necessary for them to be successful. I think it's important for teachers to get to know parents, but passing laws will probably be more of a burden than a help.
     
    I find this ludicrous and stupid. Sure, active parental involvement in integral to their child's education, but a physical grade on their child's report card is ridiculous and unnecessary. Most parents work full time and have lives of their own, and they need to provide basic human needs for their child first, before they sit down and do math homework.

    Not to mention, parents already do this, or know how to do this, for the most part anyway:

    • A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
    • A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
    • There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.
    Click to expand...

    It won't really change anything.
     
    I doubt anything is really going to change if this bill is passed. I can't really comment on the education system or the attitude of parents in the US, so I will take from my experience in the UK.

    Saying to parents that they have to 'patrol' their kids and MAKE them go to school is harder than it sounds. Sometimes, kids are just too much of a pain and will not do anything that you tell them to. You have to give them responsibility at some point in their life, and school, for me, if the best place to give them that; which includes getting to school on time and not acting like an idiot.

    The problem is, if a kid doesn't want to go to school, a lot more times than you would think, he won't. Some parents have jobs themselves, and they can't be there 24/7 to make their kid go to school, do his work and behave.
    Although, you could argue that if the kid was brought up correctly, then he would have all of these qualities to learn and manners. Not necessarily. Sometimes kids can just make a turn for the worst.

    tl;dr version, doubt it will really do much good.​
    ​
     
    My mother is currently teaching in a rather low acheiving primary school and one of the biggest problems she's had in trying to improve her class has been lazy/neglectful parents who fail to ensure that:

    • A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
    • A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
    • There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.

    I don't want to start spouting horror stories, but I've heard her speaking so many times about children being out late, with parents; or about kids who come into school hungry because their parents are still asleep and can't be bothered to do breakfast; or about parents who just never show up for parents' evenings and turn up late to collect their child at the end of the day. Maybe it doesn't apply so much at later stages, but in early education, parents play a crucial role in the educational development of their child.

     
    • A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.
    I don't believe this relates to a child's education. While it helps the child to focus appropriately throughout school, it doesn't have anything to do with what the child is learning. I really see this as a parent's responsibility. Something they should know and seek to do, especially for those attending elementary or primary school.

    • A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.
    A child should be responsible for having their work done and being prepared for their exams. It's not the parents who are going to be taking the test or learning the work, but the student. A parent should just make sure to keep track that they're child is keeping up with their responsibilities.

    • There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.
    I have no argument there. Regular communication allows parents and teachers to know what's going on on both sides of the child's life (in and out of school). It's also a proficient way for the parents to know what their child is doing in school as well as for the teacher to be aware of what is going on in their student's life at the moment.

    Vendak said:
    I think a system where parents can grade the teachers sounds much better.
    Click to expand...
    High five to that, bro.
     
    I really don't agree with this. For one, what happens to parents who get failing grades? Are they going to face some sort of sanctions, or is this a symbolic thing? If they will face sanctions, then I see this a gross overreach of governmental authority into a parent's decision on how to raise their child. If it's symbolic, then why waste time to do this? Now if this were being done at private schools, then I'm all for it. Private schools are allowed to ensure demand a certain level of academic performance from students and I see nothing wrong with the schools pressuring parents. Public schools just need to provided a basic level of education and should offer, but no require, more rigorous standards for students who wish to commit themselves to them. Imo, compulsory education just wastes taxpayer money by forcing us to use resources on students who care about their education and will just not pay attention in class, not do homework, and skip school anyway.
     
    FreakyLocz14 said:
    I really don't agree with this. For one, what happens to parents who get failing grades?
    Click to expand...

    That is my major question.

    I mean, are they going to send a parent to jail for failing? That certainly wouldn't be in the best interest of the child.

    Or is it going to affect the actual student? Is the grade going to change how the student's next teacher thinks of them before they meet them?

    This is a horrible idea, it's not going to change anything. If anything, it will make things worse.
     
    This is so extremely over-the-top. Besides that, what will they do if the parent fails? Forget about the child and essentially let a parent's mistake screw over this kid's education? That's not fair either, and if you punish the parent, you only make it 15x harder for them to actually set aside time to spend with the child. :/

    Either way, it's a lose/lose situation, and an easy cop-out for teachers and school districts everywhere, so I strongly oppose this on every conceivable level.
     
    Parents should be like teachers everything that the student do must involve the perant to approve it or reject it, even in school occasional days they must be there. And this will raise the discipline in the society because students like doing nasty things when their parents are not there.
     
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