Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is directed towards posters who retort “teach them yourselves!” when parents complain that their school doesn’t teach phonics, handwriting, spelling, grammar, multiplication tables, etc.

The *only* thing parents should be responsible for is ensuring their kids are well fed and rested, and mentally and physically ready to learn at school. If there are not enough hours in the school day to do everything, teachers should be sending explicit instructions to the parents about what to do at home (eg please have your child drill these times tables until they’ve memorized them). This is also known as “homework”.

No. Your entire post is the height of parental laziness.

Anonymous wrote:How is this even a complaint? You think asking for a parent's help in an assignment from a teacher is inequitable?

If it's graded on whether a parent helped, then maybe. If an adult, any adult, can't help your child with their homework, that's really awful.

The government is not responsible for everything for your child except for food and a place to sleep. Really re-think how much your believe you are entitled to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I strongly disagree.

What about my husband's WAR REFUGEE parents who came to their host country with nothing, worked hard, and found time to teach their 4 children, all of whom became doctors, bankers or engineers?

We are not wealthy, and until recently didn't have the resources to outsource my son's special needs therapies, executive coaching and tutoring he has needed since he was little. We did 90% of the work ourselves until last year when we put our hard-earned money into great tutors for him, to get him to the next level.

There will always be unfit parents who are not able to parent, absent parents who are not there to help, and all kinds of situations where children are not getting what they need from their families, or lack thereof.

It does NOT mean that the rest of us, rich or poor, should purposefully refrain from helping our children in any way we can.

Schools will provide what governments and society decide they should pay for. It may not be enough for some children. If you, the loving parent, can't make up the difference, nobody will pick up the slack, OP.

Your husband’s family came here with no debt.

??? They came WITH NOTHING but a couple of suitcases. My husband remembers being left in an empty room with his 3 brothers (all under the age of 7), while their mother went to sort out paperwork, and only a bucket to pee in. No furniture. No food. Nothing. He remembers being hungry for years.

What do you mean, no debt?!?!! Are you trying to be funny? Can you even fathom what it means to be a child, hungry and cold and not speak the language? He clawed his way out of poverty and he became a doctor.

Yet his immigrant parents were able to help him and his brothers with homework, teach him math beyond the school's curriculum and get him ahead in most subjects, all while living in a crappy house in a dangerous neighborhood.

So don't give me excuses on why you can't teach your child. It's important to demand great public schools so that all children can be well served. But you need to do your job as a parent too.

oh. so they were well-educated themselves, unlike the majority of refugees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I strongly disagree.

What about my husband's WAR REFUGEE parents who came to their host country with nothing, worked hard, and found time to teach their 4 children, all of whom became doctors, bankers or engineers?

We are not wealthy, and until recently didn't have the resources to outsource my son's special needs therapies, executive coaching and tutoring he has needed since he was little. We did 90% of the work ourselves until last year when we put our hard-earned money into great tutors for him, to get him to the next level.

There will always be unfit parents who are not able to parent, absent parents who are not there to help, and all kinds of situations where children are not getting what they need from their families, or lack thereof.

It does NOT mean that the rest of us, rich or poor, should purposefully refrain from helping our children in any way we can.

Schools will provide what governments and society decide they should pay for. It may not be enough for some children. If you, the loving parent, can't make up the difference, nobody will pick up the slack, OP.

Your husband’s family came here with no debt.

??? They came WITH NOTHING but a couple of suitcases. My husband remembers being left in an empty room with his 3 brothers (all under the age of 7), while their mother went to sort out paperwork, and only a bucket to pee in. No furniture. No food. Nothing. He remembers being hungry for years.

What do you mean, no debt?!?!! Are you trying to be funny? Can you even fathom what it means to be a child, hungry and cold and not speak the language? He clawed his way out of poverty and he became a doctor.

Yet his immigrant parents were able to help him and his brothers with homework, teach him math beyond the school's curriculum and get him ahead in most subjects, all while living in a crappy house in a dangerous neighborhood.

So don't give me excuses on why you can't teach your child. It's important to demand great public schools so that all children can be well served. But you need to do your job as a parent too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I strongly disagree.

What about my husband's WAR REFUGEE parents who came to their host country with nothing, worked hard, and found time to teach their 4 children, all of whom became doctors, bankers or engineers?

We are not wealthy, and until recently didn't have the resources to outsource my son's special needs therapies, executive coaching and tutoring he has needed since he was little. We did 90% of the work ourselves until last year when we put our hard-earned money into great tutors for him, to get him to the next level.

There will always be unfit parents who are not able to parent, absent parents who are not there to help, and all kinds of situations where children are not getting what they need from their families, or lack thereof.

It does NOT mean that the rest of us, rich or poor, should purposefully refrain from helping our children in any way we can.

Schools will provide what governments and society decide they should pay for. It may not be enough for some children. If you, the loving parent, can't make up the difference, nobody will pick up the slack, OP.

Your husband’s family came here with no debt.

??? They came WITH NOTHING but a couple of suitcases. My husband remembers being left in an empty room with his 3 brothers (all under the age of 7), while their mother went to sort out paperwork, and only a bucket to pee in. No furniture. No food. Nothing. He remembers being hungry for years.

What do you mean, no debt?!?!! Are you trying to be funny? Can you even fathom what it means to be a child, hungry and cold and not speak the language? He clawed his way out of poverty and he became a doctor.

Yet his immigrant parents were able to help him and his brothers with homework, teach him math beyond the school's curriculum and get him ahead in most subjects, all while living in a crappy house in a dangerous neighborhood.

So don't give me excuses on why you can't teach your child. It's important to demand great public schools so that all children can be well served. But you need to do your job as a parent too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a matter of public policy we really can't expect parents to do much of anything besides get kids to school well-fed and -rest, and half that time families need support just to pull that off.

Still, folks need to face the fact that the public schools just don't have the time/resources to educate our children to the standard most UMC folks demand.

I grew up in a very poor area and still had my math facts down cold by fifth grade. How do teachers here not have the time and resources to make that happen?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is directed towards posters who retort “teach them yourselves!” when parents complain that their school doesn’t teach phonics, handwriting, spelling, grammar, multiplication tables, etc.

The *only* thing parents should be responsible for is ensuring their kids are well fed and rested, and mentally and physically ready to learn at school. If there are not enough hours in the school day to do everything, teachers should be sending explicit instructions to the parents about what to do at home (eg please have your child drill these times tables until they’ve memorized them). This is also known as “homework”.

No. Your entire post is the height of parental laziness.

Anonymous wrote:As a matter of public policy we really can't expect parents to do much of anything besides get kids to school well-fed and -rest, and half that time families need support just to pull that off.

Still, folks need to face the fact that the public schools just don't have the time/resources to educate our children to the standard most UMC folks demand.

Anonymous wrote:Some of you just argue for the sake of arguing. Are you all frustrated lawyers?

No one said that parents *shouldn’t* supplement, just that they shouldn’t be *expected* to fill in the gaps for school curriculum.

Take your irrelevant stories and shove them up your a**

Anonymous wrote:Some of you just argue for the sake of arguing. Are you all frustrated lawyers?

No one said that parents *shouldn’t* supplement, just that they shouldn’t be *expected* to fill in the gaps for school curriculum.

Take your irrelevant stories and shove them up your a**

Anonymous wrote:This is directed towards posters who retort “teach them yourselves!” when parents complain that their school doesn’t teach phonics, handwriting, spelling, grammar, multiplication tables, etc.

The *only* thing parents should be responsible for is ensuring their kids are well fed and rested, and mentally and physically ready to learn at school. If there are not enough hours in the school day to do everything, teachers should be sending explicit instructions to the parents about what to do at home (eg please have your child drill these times tables until they’ve memorized them). This is also known as “homework”.