Other people's children

[ailbhe]

I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be a secondary-school teacher. We met in the library. In the course of normal conversation (she's off to Prague at the weekend), I mentioned that the Tadpole will need a passport form signed, and that the list of people allowed to sign Irish passport forms is very short and doesn't include teachers, and she talked about a student whose British passport form she had been asked to sign. Only the form wanted her to sign a statement that she knew the child's parents, and she didn't, because they never, ever came to parents' evenings.

Ever.

I made a remark along the lines of "What hope does he have?" and she said that yes, he is constantly in trouble, and his parents are often summoned to meetings with the head or the year-head or whoever.

 The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall
 cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable
   (a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
   (b) to any special educational needs he may have, either 
       by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

I quoted that to her, and she didn't get it. I clarified: "It's the parents' responsibility to ensure the child gets an education, even if they get someone else to do it." She didn't seem to see how that tied in to the child's behaviour, though.

I was and remain baffled. It's obvious to me that this child's parents have seriously damaged his/her chances of ending up either educated or in a position to educate him/herself. Is this really so obscure?

Comments

[uitlander]

No, its not hard to get that. The problem is that we live in a society full of people with lots of rights, who don't believe they have any responsibilities.

[ailbhe]

My-friend-the-teacher didn't seem to grasp it though.

[caerleon.livejournal.com]

That's most of the problem..

[ruthi.livejournal.com]

To be an effective teacher, I think that there must be an ability to build thoughts up step by step, in an organised manner. As you presented it here, you seemed to have skipped a few steps.

[gloriap.livejournal.com]

Your teacher friend may think, as I do, that the parents' attitude toward education is more important than their presence at mandatory parents' evenings. Of course, sometimes the two are closely linked, but not always. Sometime those meetings can be more annoying than fruitful.

If the parents are not attending these meetings because they are sitting at home drunk or stoned, it's obvious that they are not instilling respect for education in their child. They may have written him off because he is also always in trouble at home and they just can't cope and have no hope for him unless his attitude or behavior changes.

There's just too much imformation missing here.

[livi-short.livejournal.com]

I've missed a lot of my daughter's parents evenings just because they are held in the day during work hours and we don't get a lot of notice so i can't book time off work to attend. Their school decided it is best to send all the children home during a school day and get parents to come in for 15 min each than for the teachers to attend in the evening. As I work in another town and don't drive so reply on public transport in order for me to attend a meeting at 2pm i'd have to take the whole day off as I couldn't travel there and back and spend a useful time at work.

[ailbhe]

Heh, did they still call them "parents' evenings"? That's a bit, er, completely insane. (Though I do seem to remember something in the news a few years ago about teachers complaining that they had to be available some evenings for parents' evenings).

[ailbhe]

The parents only attend *disciplinary* meetings with the year or school head, and never, in four years, attended one voluntary parents' evening, the purpose of which is to meet the child's actual teachers in various subjects and discuss concerns or progress or whatever.

By the end of the child's time in school, disciplinary meetings were almost weekly.