Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Elephant in the room

Obviously, if your kid doesn’t like school, there must be something wrong with your kid. I mean, what else could it be?


[--From Chris at ABlogAboutSchool]

8 comments:

  1. Chris, thanks for the link. Absolutely right that the problem is assumed to reside in the kid -- and his mother! Gee, any possibility that the school needs to change?

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  2. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

    The pressure is on now for parents to bear down on their children at ever-younger ages to do their homework, get organized for school, keep up and get ready for what comes next.

    Which makes me wonder: Who (or what) exactly is engendering neurosis here?

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  3. From the article: "So what started with vague sore throats and nagging coughs ended with a list of important tasks for a long cast of characters. The school environment had to change. The child had to learn new coping skills. His mother had to change her approach to minor illnesses."

    Only here, at the very end, does this doctor make even the slightest hint the school environment needs to change. And even here, he's putting the onus on mom to make changes in her son so that the school environment is better for him. The admonishment is all to the parent and none to the school.

    Next time we need advice on school reform, let's forget about the very nice but clueless pediatrician down the street.

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  4. And Peggy, I keep coming back to this over and over. If we're doing all the work, why are we sending them to school? I've been a strong proponent of homeschooling for years now, particularly after we did a one year sabbatical. It was everything we'd hoped for and more.

    My friends would gasp and sputter, But I can't do that! I gently remind them, you already are.

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  5. PsychMom...(increasingly becoming PsychoMom), thinks...

    that it's time for a total re-think about school in society. Is it a major cause of dysfunction rather than the answer for anything that our children might need in terms of education? I know this is a little like telling the Titanic that it's about to hit an iceberg, but I think parents have to start asking questions.

    Just ask questions...

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  6. Yes, Psych, school has driven many a sane parent off the edge :). Yes, it's a lot like the Titanic but better do something now before that big ship really sinks. It's teetering dangerously...

    Or as some would say, maybe we should just blow the whole thing up and start from scratch. Is there anything really to salvage here?

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  7. I just posted some more extended thoughts on that article here, in response to a reader email.

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  8. Chris, could you cross-post it here? Thanks!

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