Parents vs Teachers

Whether you have children or not; whether you work in education or not; you want education to be world-class. In Canada, and particularly in Alberta, we have exactly that. It's nowhere near perfect but there are only a handful of jurisdictions that out perform our system. So what do we do? We pay our teachers better here than just about anywhere. We invest in quality teacher training and professional development and we provide a certain level of choice. Studies show that this is what is needed and we do it. Good for us. But most parents and many teachers still see massive holes in our system and significant opportunities for improvement. Our kids seem less and less ready for the world of work or post-secondary. Anxiety, depression, ADHD, interpersonal conflict, and low achievement are bigger problems in our system now than ever and everyone has an opinion as to whose fault it is.

Parents blame teachers for being blind, playing favourites, over-pressuring kids, not providing enough one-on-one time, not having clear enough expectations, too much homework, not enough homework, labeling, ignoring, targeting, and overall misunderstanding their children. Parents feel pressure to produce perfect children, add the fact that we see our children through unconditionally loving eyes that might miss their flaws, and it becomes difficult to accept that maybe my child's behaviour is more than just a reaction to bad teaching or bullies.

Teachers assume parents aren't spending enough time reading with kids or doing homework, they blame them for not being involved enough except for the Mom that's always at the school, she needs to be involved less. Parents aren't providing a warm environment or they are coddling their children and not giving them the chance to learn anything on their own. They are pressured to be the expert so often that it's difficult to admit and acknowledge their limits and shortcomings.

Educational reformers (which I think I am) will often call for stark changes in teacher training and an increase in teacher accountability and performance standards. But reformers need to remember one, important, perhaps THE important educational reality... while teachers can and will always need to improve there is no factor that is more highly correlated with improved educational outcomes than PARENT involvement.

Yes, teachers could be trained better on how to include parents more but if there is any intervention that will more drastically improve our education system it is a completely different kind of PD. I'm talking Parental Development. While teachers continue to sharpen their crafts the incremental benefits are minuscule compared to the progress that would happen if parents were better trained and supported on how to be educators at home.

I have loads of ideas of how to help parents be better educators but the few times I have tried to facilitate such an idea I run into two major problems. The first is that nobody wants to pay for that. I am not too worried about this though because the research is there and I'm certain that with a bit of lobbying we could get school districts and even provincial governments to invest in such endeavours. The real problem with rolling out such an initiative is that even if it's free, nobody shows up.

Let me be clear. Teachers need to continue professional develop in many areas so that the profession can grow and innovate and improve but nothing will improve our education system more than greater and more targeted parental involvement. This does not necessarily mean that parents are to blame but we need to place more confidence and less blame on our educators and start thinking of more ways for parents to be involved and empowered to be excellent educators themselves.