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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Yes, absolutely, parents share the blame. I'm a parent, not a teacher. I've seen overbearing parents push their kids into the top levels again and again. One mom complained to me that her kid wasn't in the advanced reading group, she said she was going to call the teacher and, lo and behold, a week later the kid had been moved up to the advanced group with mine. Another story: in our MCPS language immersion program one mom complained that the quarterly math assessments were too difficult for her snowflake, so the school started handing the questions out [i]before the assessment test[/i] to all the kids.

Why does parental behavior share the blame?  Several reasons, some understandable, some not so much:
(1) They know, because it's the truth, that if their kid doesn't get on the advanced math and reading tracks in elementary school, the kid will have a much lower shot at the magnets. I doubt many of these parents are gunning for Harvard in 10 years. It's just they understand that by settling for "regular" in elementary school they will limit their kids' future options and opportunities.
(2) Who doesn't want more challenge for their kids? The PPs arguing that it's about families wanting dumbed-down curricula have got the wrong end of the stick. Parents want their kids to be challenged even if they're overestimating their snowflake's abilities.
[b](3) Some parents don't want their snowflakes in the "regular" classes with the bad discipline cases.[/b]

I can also argue the other side. I blame parents and teachers about equally. Because teachers are forced to be gatekeepers against this onslaught of loving parents, they do sometimes keep out qualified kids. We had to argue for our kid, who was in the 98th percentile on the Terra Nova math elements, to get into advanced math. I doubt we were wrong to do so, because DC subsequently got into the math magnet.[/quote]

Exactly, but be honest about this. If your kid then gets a C, or worse, don't blame the teacher. You put your kid in that class because you don't want them with the "bad" kids even though you have recognized that they may not have the academic talents to be there. [/quote]

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