Education and the PTA, Parents:
The people, the systems and how they do more harm than good.
Why am I against the education system, the people in education and the PTA. Actually I am not, I just believe that the systems have failed or don’t work; the people don’t (really) know what to do, can not the see the problems in front of them or don’t try. Parents and the PTA, though they care, only interfere and create more difficulties.
In this I will discuss each, Education System and the PTA - Parents, and explain why I think they have created more bad than good. At the end of each I will then provide possible solutions and, or alternatives.
Note; that I will not go into great detail, for I am sure most people are well aware of the many problems in education and conflicts with the PTA-parents. Furthermore I do not want this to turn into a book or paper; there are many on the subject and most of them are not worth the paper they are printed on. Lastly I am not an expert and gladly so. Experts are the major problem with education because experts are limited by the knowledge of their field, which is base on one or two topics/themes. They can not see or think beyond their specific field and are therefore trapped in the box of their expertise. Plus experts can not be trusted for they have a self-interest in keeping things as they are because if things were to change, their expertise would be no longer needed. In addition, experts do not (more likely can not) deal in randomness – they only deal in bell-curves but life is not a bell-curve, life is random and full of black-swans but that is a topic for another discussion.
My hope is that my words will provide food for thought and as a springboard to actually create solutions and new ideas to elevate education to the next levels not only for the benefit of children and teenagers but also for adults returning education or to further their education.
Let’s start the emotional storm and the part that will get people angered the most: The PTA; namely parents.
Yes I know their intentions are only for good and they just want the best for their children, but this is the point: “They only want the best for THEIR (own) child or children.
Every topic and, or problem discussed by them is only view from the perspective of what is best for their own child. They do not, more likely cannot, see the points in a collective sense, that is what is best for all the children in the school (district). In this the PTA -parents place restrictions on what the teachers and schools are able to do, and greatly interfere with the education of not only their own child but all children.
To illustrate the point: In many countries’ primary (elementary) schools, and to some extent in middle-schools as well, there is a policy of “no winners or losers”, every student must not be made to feel that they have a greater or lesser ability than their fellow students.
Fine you say. Where’s the harm in this? - The harm is in the fact that life is not like this. In life there are winners & losers, haves & have-nots, talented & untalented, and the intelligent & unintelligent. This is dramatically demonstrated quite soon once children enter high school and they learn, with the brute force of a hammer to the head, that life is not equal and definitely not fair. So while parents think they are helping and protecting their own child, they are actually not.
This no winners, no losers philosophy/policy is not only about sport or physical education, though in these areas the idea is just as damaging, it is in all aspects of primary/elementary school education for example:
- In lowering the amount of information and work assigned in the classroom.
- Giving (too) easy to accomplish homework assignments, setting no homework and, or allowing homework not to be done.
- Lowering the passing percentage/grade for classroom administered tests, end-of-term/semester exams, bi-yearly exams and end-of-year/final exams.
- By lowering or reducing to zero the amount of (minor) negative experiences, which will benefit the child later in life.
This is only one example of parents good and well meaning intentions that, in the reality of life, do more harm than good. And this is from level-headed parents. “Monster”, “Devil”, “Demon” parents investing all their efforts to protect their children from every negative aspect and wrap the children in protective padding, are the ones who do the greatest damage their children’s (future) life and to a greater or lesser extent their lives of other children as well. The names for these types of parents is justifiable because they high-jack education for the own cause and frighten people away from taking real-world actions that will improve education for all. Actually they should be called terrorist because, like terrorist, their activities paralyze education and their thinking is insanely fanatical.
I do understand their need and desire to only want the best for their children, but this tunnel-vision focus blinds them many many wonderful opportunities to improve education for all, which in turn can only benefit their children.
Finally, the focus points of the PTA / Parents {the actions they the parents would like / want the teachers and schools to take} only are on the immediate and, or short term needs of their children. How short, either only from the year the child is in (e.g. Grade 5) to the time the child will be in that school. Indeed this immediate / short-term focus would be funny, if it did not serious consequences because what they decide is best to do in one moment they will decide it is not the best the next moment. This brings us individualising; parents with two or more children rarely think about the education of their children as a group (unless they are the same age). It is not that they can not think about how education applies to all their children, it is just that they tend to think about how education applies to each child on an individual bases. Unfortunately, and what usually happens is that what they think is best for one child may have negative impacts on the other children and vice versa.
So am I proposing that parents should not be involved in schools and education?
Well no and yes.
In the actual education of their children the PTA / parents should not be involved or have their involvement limited to only a support capacity.
Homework, projects, assignments and extra-curricular studies/activities; in these areas parents are extremely important for the child’s learning as a support mechanism to provide encouragement and as a resource or knowledge-bank for the child.
The actual education and teaching of their children NO!
The only exception is those in home-schooling or in distance-learning. For these situations parents actually have a separate role as teacher. The roles of parent and teacher must be separated as much as possible i.e. when they are a parent, they ARE a parent and when they are a teacher, they ARE a TEACHER. They must try their best to keep the two roles separated; even the language they use must be divided between parent language and teacher language.
Every other non-educational area, parents are a must and their involvement is greatly needed in supporting teachers and the schools. This could something simple like buying a ticket for a school raffle or more significant such as fund-raising to help the school finance educational trips/excursions, building/ground maintenance, buying new/replacement material/equipment, assisting teachers and schools with non-teaching duties, etc.
In these and all other non-teaching/educating roles, duties and activities the involvement of parents is a must for without parents, schools would crumble and could even die. Plus parents provide that essential connection to the community that all schools must have to give a sense of identity, social bonding and togetherness.
What to do – For the children? As I previously stated, parents’ greatest beneficial role for their children is in supporting the children. Once a child has left the school grounds, parents must step up and become an active part of their child's studies. For example, ensuring that homework, assignment and projects are done. They must tie the completion of these to real world remuneration, benefits and bonus rewards: Giving extra pocket-money, a day off from household-chores, more mobile phone/computer game time and, or a special treat for finishing all their tasks of the week/month, etc. Or a decrease in pocket-money, more household-chores, no mobile-phone/ computer games for a week and, or groundings, etc. In these, parents will not only provide positive task-completion focus and motivation for the child to actively further their own education but also advantage their children with invaluable life lessons.
What to do – For the schools? Again as mention before, parents can get involve (and must be involved) in the schools by helping the schools financially or by volunteering to do duties / activities, take on responsibilities to help the schools in many ways large and small.
What they must avoid is dictating or corrupting education and what is taught in the classrooms for their own special wants. Remember, education is about learning/teaching large variety of things, which will expand the child’s knowledge, help to be creative / innovative & think in new ways, and most important give them the necessary skills to deal with and, or succeed in the real (globally-connected / competitive) world.
Education is NOT what the PTA or parents deem appropriate because of some social, culture, economic and, or religious bias / prejudice. These bias of forcing what is deem appropriate (usually by a small but vocal and influential number of PTA-members / parents) or blocking particular subjects has major consequences and by doing so only limits children in acquiring the needed skills for real-world-life. If parents want these other things to be learnt by their children then the parents themselves can teach that in their own homes.
In conclusion, parents’ and the PTA’s tunnel-view of only focusing on the needs of THEIR own children and not all children as a whole coupled with their narrow focus on the immediate to short-term benefits have had negative impacts on education. In addition these, the forcing and, or blocking curriculum changes to meet the PTA / parents limited / shortsighted world views only disadvantages the children in learn the skills to meet real world challenges in their adult-future. This started when the first PTA’s began to get involved in education and has become ever increasingly intrusive, disruptive, corrupting and had dumbing effects on education. While I understand that parents are only trying to their level best to ensure that their children receive the very best education possible. Their demands / requests / wishes on actual education and teachers only results in creating negative affects and damage the very education that all children need.
So this brings us to the end of the first part on Education & the PTA, Parents. In the next part I will discuss the failing education system and the people in the system.
I hope that I have provided some food for thought. Please keep a look out for the next part. I very much look forward to your comments and thoughts.
By Syrbastyian Amaya Vzampfyier
