In response to a prior post on homeschooling, Debbie made the comment: one of my pet peeves is the notion that a person has to have a teaching certificate to be qualified to teach their kids.
Let’s expand on that a bit. In sending your kid off to a public school to be taught by someone else, this is in essence what you are saying to that teacher:
You have a degree from a college and a piece of paper saying you are qualified to teach my kid. You have been interviewed, vetted and hired by a school system in a process that I as a parent have virtually no say or involvement in. We don’t know you and you don’t know us. We meet briefly, for a couple of minutes, before the school year starts and then I hustle my kid off on a bus (also driven by a stranger for the most part) to be in your care for most of the day in their formative years when they are developing their worldview and core understanding of the way things work in the world. If my kid is not a trouble maker or perceived as being “gifted”, we will have only minimal interaction throughout the year in a parent-teacher “conference” for 30 minutes. Otherwise, the only thing I know about what is going on all day with my kid is what they choose to share with me. Speaking as a graduate of public schools, my parents never saw even a tiny fraction of what was going on at school and that was almost 20 years ago. I guarantee things are way wackier today. When I was in school we got in trouble for PDA (Public Display of Affection). Today kids are emailing pictures of themselves au naturale via cell phones.
Is that working for you? Because it ain’t working for me.
2 comments:
For the biggest part of the country, I have no doubt that what you say is spot on.
But for the sake of discussion... my experience in the public school system was completely different than what you describe. Granted, small town schools are nothing like large ones, but my parents made a distinct effort to be involved. I remember them coming to school with each of us one whole day every year, both of my parents randomly came and ate lunch with us and when I was in high school my mom decided to get a job in the cafeteria. They got involved with our extra curricular activities, attended school functions, etc. I'm sure it was all intentional. They wanted to keep an eye on us, learn how we spent our days, and let the teachers know that they were watching and that they cared. Of course they pretty much already knew all the teachers. :) And where they came from, where they lived, went to church, who their children and parents were... :)
I know that's not the norm though.
kt, I have heard that objection before. There are individual occassions when parents are more involved in the schools, like in your case. I would ask this, since they were spending so much time in "keeping an eye" on you, what were they paying the teachers for? With the time and effort your parents put into being involved, they could have just taught you at home and been sure that you were getting a Christ focused education.
Ultimately, even if kids are being taught by Christians in a public school, they are not getting a Christian education. The text books, the methodology, everything about public education either overtly denies what the Bible teaches or teaches kids topics outside the Biblical framework. As a Christian, you cannot properly study something like history without an overlying understanding of God's providence and Lordship. Sure your parents can correct this when you get home, but if you parents spend all of their time correcting or adding to what the school is teaching kids, why not just skip a step and do it yourself at home? That way, as a parent you know what and how your kids are learning and the primary influence on their formation as a person, their character is driven by you and what you teach, not their peers who are by and large not Christians.
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