Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!agate!labrea!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: blaming teachers
Message-ID: <233@quintus.UUCP>
Date: 3 Aug 88 04:54:05 GMT
References: <12230@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <12260@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <24171@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <2967@utastro.UUCP> <11380@quartz.BBN.COM>
Sender: news@quintus.UUCP
Reply-To: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc.
Lines: 27

In article <11380@quartz.BBN.COM> dm@bbn.com (Dave Mankins) writes:
>I believe that we err in blaming teachers for the poor performance of
>our children.  Even the most enthusiastic, motivated teachers have an
>uphill battle to interest our children in things that we parents are
>not interested in.

Teachers have children for ~5 hours per week-day.
A couple of days ago I read a book called "Miseducation" (or something
like that, I can produce a better reference if anyone cares) which
quoted a study which reported in their sample that parents spent
~15 minutes per week-day talking to their children, ~30 minutes a day
on week-ends.  That gives the teachers about an 11-to-1 advantage.
[Ok, teachers don't spend all their time talking.  Call it 6-to-1.]

I'm not saying this is good.  Surely few of the people who care enough
about education to read this newsgroup can be that apathetic about their
children.

My point is that schools *claim* to be able to teach the subjects they
are teaching, and that if that study is at all typical, most children
are getting "academic" input *only* from the schools.  If education 
really does depend so critically on the parents' involvement, then
(a) it is time that the schools confessed frankly that they can't
    educate children on their own
(b) we have a big problem, because what kind of parents will ignorant
    children make?  What do we do to break the cycle _now_?  Blaming
    today's parents won't change them.