Comments on: out of the haze and into…. http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/out-of-the-haze-and-into/ observations on a failing Title 1 school district finally discovering the magnitude of corruption in its administrative ranks. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:54:45 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Marijo Cook http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/out-of-the-haze-and-into/#comment-3 Marijo Cook Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:41:12 +0000 http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/out-of-the-haze-and-into/#comment-3 This was always a source of confusion to me as a parent. I went to a private school from 6-12th grade, and my parents never participated in my education beyond buying the supplies that I needed-- they couldn't; I was learning things that they had never been taught. So, even though I was better-educated when my daughters were in school, I was perplexed by this idea that I was supposed to continue educating them after they came home from school. Also, we had little money, and I worked a hard 8-10 hours every day in addition to transporting the girls to their athletic and social activities. I really did not have time or energy for 'tutoring' every evening. The freaking annual science projects were the worst. As a humanities major, I had little interest in science experiments, and yet we were supposed to do this thing with data and displays and etc. entirely at home, and exactly one science teacher in all the years that my 2 girls were in school offered any guidance whatsoever. Whew, I'm glad all that is over! And my girls came out being pretty well educated in spite of my resistance, largely I think because of the two or three things that I could do that made a huge difference: we had no television in the house at all, the girls had an unlimited budget for buying books for themselves (mostly through the Scholastic program), and we kept a computer working and available for them, which was, for us, a pretty big expense. Anyway, I'm not sure that you need to convince parents to do more. They do a lot already, and children are naturally curious and interested in learning. Maybe you just need to get them to turn off the TV. This was always a source of confusion to me as a parent. I went to a private school from 6-12th grade, and my parents never participated in my education beyond buying the supplies that I needed– they couldn’t; I was learning things that they had never been taught. So, even though I was better-educated when my daughters were in school, I was perplexed by this idea that I was supposed to continue educating them after they came home from school. Also, we had little money, and I worked a hard 8-10 hours every day in addition to transporting the girls to their athletic and social activities. I really did not have time or energy for ‘tutoring’ every evening. The freaking annual science projects were the worst. As a humanities major, I had little interest in science experiments, and yet we were supposed to do this thing with data and displays and etc. entirely at home, and exactly one science teacher in all the years that my 2 girls were in school offered any guidance whatsoever.

Whew, I’m glad all that is over! And my girls came out being pretty well educated in spite of my resistance, largely I think because of the two or three things that I could do that made a huge difference: we had no television in the house at all, the girls had an unlimited budget for buying books for themselves (mostly through the Scholastic program), and we kept a computer working and available for them, which was, for us, a pretty big expense.

Anyway, I’m not sure that you need to convince parents to do more. They do a lot already, and children are naturally curious and interested in learning. Maybe you just need to get them to turn off the TV.

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