chanel
Silver Member
"Not My Child" Syndrome. At one time or another, most children behave badly. But way too many parents, confronted by another parent or teacher about their child's behavior, get defensive and go into blind denial mode. Without proper discipline, kids develop a sense of entitlement and the dangerous realization that their bad behavior will go relatively unpunished.
Enabled by clueless parents, kids soon realize there are no moral boundaries. Bad behavior escalates. Yet no matter how many times these parents are confronted, they refuse to see reality. It probably pains them to think they've raised less-than-perfect children - but it's more painful to see the damage these disruptive kids do to the other kids they victimize.
The "Head in the Sand" parent. The other side of the coin from the ambitious parent: In my teaching career, what used to upset me most was that many of the bad parents didn't have high aspirations for their children.
Their kids would consistently come home with failing grades on report cards, tests and homework assignments - yet few of the parents would contact me to ask what could be done to help their children do better.
Read more: When schools have to be the parents | Philadelphia Daily News | 10/05/2010
There are a lot of ideas floating around about how to "fix" K-12 education. Most people agree that it does not take a village to raise a child, it takes a parent.
How should schools deal with neglectful or enabling parents? Can they?