SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

The blame game

Some years ago now, Dr. Galen Alessi, a psychology professor at Western Michigan University, surveyed school psychologists about the cause of the learning problems of the approximately 5,000 students they had seen over the past year. Although the psychologists were offered a number of possible causes, including curriculum factors, inappropriate teaching practices, and faulty school administrative factors, to a man they located the blame in the children’s homes (10% - 20%) or in the child (100%). You can learn more about the study here, along with suggestions for the parents of children with learning problems.

It’s no wonder parents become apathetic and pull back from involvement in their children’s schooling. The vast majority of parents start the schooling game with great enthusiasm, eager to take part and to help their kids be successful in school. Before long, however, they have become the apathetic bunch of parents educators complain about. Why?

The answer can be found in the present organizational structure of the education system. There are four main disincentives to parental involvement.

1.  The administration of schools is complex and remote. Parents and teachers (and even principals) feel they have no control over the policies and practices imposed on their school. 

2.  Some educators are unwilling to share. They believe that they are progressive, up-to-date experts who are infinitely more knowledgeable than the old-fashioned parents who advocate higher standards and more formal instruction.

3.  Most parents are bewildered by the new teaching methods and the associated jargon. The lack of textbooks, the elasticity of standards, the weird or non-existent homework: all help to keep them at arms’ length.

4.  Most educators are ill-equipped to communicate with - let alone reach out to - parents, having never been offered a course on how to foster parental involvement - despite universal acknowledgement of its importance.

Blaming parents for not being involved in their children’s education is kind of like the guy who murdered his parents and then threw himself on the court’s mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.