Just Some Thoughts on Union Publications

I was reading through an article in one of the union publications about the importance of family involvement when the kids are in middle and high school. Most of what was in the article seemed like common sense. There was a very interesting statement however. The article talks about a "new brief from the Harvard Family Research Project" and its recommendations for "policymakers, practitioners and researchers." One recommendation is to "facilitate parents' ability to monitor their adolescents' growth and progress." This seems to be a suggestion that says a lot in a few words. It sends the idea that parents are not capable of knowing what is best for their children and that as public school teachers/administrators, we need to tell them. How backwards! But this is the attitude I find in general after teaching for five years. And it is easy when you, as the teacher, spends more time with a child than his or her parents do. It is easy for the role of teacher to supersede that of parent. And perhaps that is why the Bible says that parents are supposed to raise, teach, and have authority over their children's development; because it sure is easy for a society with mass public schooling to think that it is the school's job to completely raise their children, instead of focusing on academics.