The comments are telling in revealing the school’s culture of misconceptions, blamed ridden and biases of hidden agendas that is nurtured by the K to 12 establishment. Chris, is a perfect example that parents are to be fully blamed for low achievement.

The sole exception are the teachers with the kids. Good parent or bad parent, the teachers tick off. The sole accountability tool is if they attended parent-teacher interviews. For parents who dare to complain about the increase costs, time and effort on providing tutors for materials on stuff the K to 12 are no longer willing to teach or even provide, there is the special category of trouble maker parent.

Parents under the current school culture scheme. They role is to remain silent, and to provide for their children with an eager smile and an air of obedience towards the needs of the K to 12.  A short essay on K-12 Culture: An Insider Reveals Why Our Schools Don’t Teach -  http://www.proyouthpages.com/k12culture.html

Parents are really on their own. Most find it out by the time their kids reach high school that they have been operating under falsehoods nurtured by the K to 12 to served their best interests.

TIME Article Is A Welcome Opportunity To Expose Parent Concerns

1   We will expect a lot of brouhaha about the Nov 3 issue of TIME to yet hit the stands.  However, by some means the word is out about the content and cover and is already inflaming a lot of protests from teacher unions.

2   This is a great opportunity for parents and others seeing the need for education reform to take all possible opportunities to engage in the conversation.

3   Not to defend teacher unions but to add perspective to the debate we should be able to add that it is the failure of governments in charge that have allowed such abuses as revealed to have continued for so long.

4 This is also the opportunity to illustrate how the consumers — the parents — have had their rights and responsibilities in the education of their children usurped by vested self-interests.

5   While the system offers protections and rights and remedies to those in the establishment, the consumer has few articulated rights and few tenuous remedies. The topic of Parent Rights in Education should get a hearing in the upcoming discussions.

6   The general treatment of parents in the public education system should be brought forward and become a matter of considerable policy review — all the way to teacher training.  That a father as in this article was so poorly treated is a testament about disrespect of parents. And mothers will tell you that they even have a worse time with officialdom.

7   Let’s get our points together; organize some arguments; and not let this opportunity slip us by.

” but I thinkI heard the other day that schools in affluent areas show higher levels of academic success than schools in poorer areas. Not surprising. But these schools use the same curriculum, do they not?”

The curriculum is not effective for any child.
Look at it, look at the textbooks. The curriculum is fragmented and it does not have a logical sequence. A knowledgeable adult may figure it out, but only because they know it already; they are not learning these things for the first time.
Most parents, seem to have trouble deciphering the curriculum themselves because it’s confusing.
The how can we possibly think that 8 and 9 and 10 year olds can figure it out?

The schools in affluent areas do better because these children learn a lot at home: children went to effective kindergarden programs, they are tutored by their parents or grandparents, they go to outside tutoring paid by their parents.

Moreover if in most classrooms most of the students have the pre-requisite skills first of all the classrooms are likely to be more manageable and secondly any teaching based on any curriculum would stick to some degree.
Because they are competent the students are more likely to have good attitudes and fewer behavior problems.

It’s a positive cycle that reinforces itself.

However the starting point is: students that are competent because they are taught outside the school.

Good students are good because they are taught outside the school.

http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/have-you-finished-your-homework-mom/

“Good students are good because they are taught outside the school.”  I absolutely abhor this myth producing adage being used to target parents for their parenting skills, while the K to 12 is offered a free pass on the teaching and curriculum methods and practices.

Would that mean, all Shanghai parents are good parents who have good students in mathematics?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/what-shanghai-can-teach-us-about-teaching-math/article17835021/?page=1

No of course not. One can easily tell that the Chinese educators are playing the biggest role in math achievement. Home culture is second fiddle to school culture in Chinese schools. The opposite is in Canada, where the home culture plays first and second fiddle as opposed to the school culture playing fourth fiddle.

It boils down to families and their ability to teach their own children when the schools will not do it for a number of reasons.  However, don’t expect any honestly from the K to 12, they are too busy producing other myths, such as the myth the parents have too much power in the math wars.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/in-the-math-wars-do-parents-have-too-much-power/article17693320/#video0id17693320

The above video will reflect the current false narrative, that only parents with mathematical backgrounds are involved with the math wars. Really?  All the parents I have met over the years, were just like me without post-secondary math backgrounds, well-versed on arithmetic, advanced arithmetic to basic algebra to geometry to trig. I knew back in 2001, the math curriculum was bad and now in 2014, the math curriculum went from bad to worse to horrible. Horrible for parents, because parents have no choice but to hire tutors, teach math themselves from grade 1 and up. That is if they want their youngsters to take math related courses at the high school level, other than the mind-numbing basic math courses of pasting and cutting fraction strips.

fromEurope this macleans article is what propelled me to become involved in the math initiative and contact Dr. Stokke several years ago, who is featured in this article.  I found this particular comment of hers very intriguing:

“Kids spend six hours a day there—I think the schools should be able to teach math to children themselves,” says Stokke. “It’s completely wrong-headed. And the moment you say parents should play a significant role in public education, you have a two-tiered system.”

Yes, it’s the worst kept secret in our schools.  Parents are the ones who are now providing the training - themselves or through private learning centres/tutors, so their kids can learn arithmetic.  And their involvement is what is fuelling an ever widening 2 tier system of public education.  Ironically, many educrats love to support public education, but are also accepting, and sometimes encourage, parents to spend even more of their hard earned money on private tutors so their kids can learn the fundamentals.  I’ve also heard some teachers scoff at teaching the fundamentals themselves, claiming that’s the easy work and they didn’t want to spend time on it in the classroom.  However the overwhelming majority of educators I have spoken to about this, are equally frustrated about this issue as I am.  They see the fallout of poor math skills on a daily basis with their students, but have limited power in correcting the situation. Between watered down, ineffective curriculums, and confusing strategies they are mandated to teach, it’s very hard for them to help their students.  So there needs to be an overwhelming push from parents and other concerned individuals to INSIST common sense and successful methods be implemented for the benefit of our kids.  If every parent sent one email to their kids’ teacher, principal and school superintendent, and even signed on to one of the 3 provincial math petitions, or the national math petition featured at http://www.wisemath.org that ,would be a good place to start. 

“Good students are good because they are taught outside the school.”

Nancy, it’s not good that is happening, it should not be happening ... however that’s today’s reality in Ontario.

The education public relations keeps pointing to good students to say that our curriculum and teaching methods do work for some kids. No, the current curriculum and teaching methods don’t work for any or our kids.

No nine year old can teach himself math or spelling or how to write a good sentence!
.. or go online and find the righ math materials and practice on his own, .. the way Catherine suggested.

I agree with both you Tara and with you Nancy:
It should not be the parents job to teach or better said to un-teach and then re-teach when our children go to school every day for 6 hours a day.

How can Kumon teach in 2 hours per week while the public schools in 30 hours per week cannot?

I have always considered education to be a joint venture between school and family and, of course, the student should be willing. I remember that my parents didn’t expect school to do everything and neither did I when I became a parent. One should keep in mind that even though students spend six hours (practically) in school, the time is divided among breaks (usually 90 minutes), transition time between activities (depends on the students, teacher, school policy…) and “extracurricular activities”. Also, precious time is spent with students who are not ready for class (no homework done, forgot notebook etc).

“Good students are good because they are taught outside the school.”

This is not true. First, I would define “good students”. For me, for instance, a good student is that child/young person who comes to school prepared to learn and take part in school activities, who is respectful of adults and pairs, who pays attention in class and asks questions, who is curious about what he/she is learning and goes to the school library (or public library) to find out more, who has other interests (sports for instance) that do not interfere with his school work etc. From my point of view, when chose to graduate, a good student should be able to know himself/herself so that he/she can make informed choices regarding his future (not his parents, grandparents, friends). I see the parent as helping the child to discover him/herself by providing opportunities. Everything is achieved through hard work - talent alone is not enough. I’m giving one example: children who take part in sports with the goal to go into competitive sports, like to become a team member of a NHL hockey team: they wake up very early every day to train (their parents, too) or they train very late, very day, then take part in contests etc. The energy involved and the dedication are great. If half of this energy were dedicated for matth, for example…

Catherine, however the joint venture is force upon the parents by law. Compulsory laws that forces the vast majority to send their kids to a public school of not of their own choosing. The secondary part of the joint venture, is that parents nor the students are guaranteed an education in the public K to 12. Such as corrective remediation in the 3 Rs, in order to have the skills to be able to access the education offerings. In turn the motivation to work hard.

Why should any student want to work hard in their school studies if the student does not have the skills in the 3 Rs? Unlike competitive sports, where the athlete over the years have been taught and provided training to correct their weaknesses and ultimately improve in their sport.

Education is a joint effort.  Parents should not have to teach their students, but they should be willing to reinforce what the student learns in school.  We have too many kinders coming to school never having picked up a pencil or crayon - I actually had a girl last year tell me her mom wouldn’t let her!  There are many good teachers and parents, as well as some bad of each.  When teachers send papers home with students and it is obvious the folders are not looked at for weeks at a time, teachers are dealing with a difficult situation.  When we have students that have never had a book read to them (obvious because they have no clue how to track the words) it is difficult to overcome that.  If parents will simply: 1. read to your children every day (from birth to college!) 2. show them you enjoy reading 3. point out words, shapes and numbers 4. spend time with them without watching tv, playing video games or texting—students will have much more success in school and much of the finger pointing back and forth can be eliminated.