Dear Wilma,
I agree with Kathleen on this one.
One-year-olds bite, chew and drool.
Parents, teachers and peers socialize them.
The stakes may be a little higher today, as some of the biters can now
pass fatal diseases, but the nature of the beasts, at age 1, is not much
different than it was at other times in history.
13 has changed, a lot, but that is a different story about prolonging
childhood and longer living.
Second, you and I don't seem to be defining "competent" in the same way,
and I wouldn't want your definition ascribed to my intentions.
I see casual parents raising children, but 'competent' parents bringing
babies to maturity.
To my mind, competent parents are the ones who help kids learn the
importance of being
where they are supposed to be
when they are supposed to be there
prepared
with homework done
to cooperate
toward achieving established goals.
I will take a teacher to task for bad or ignorant speech or behavior, but
I'll back a teacher to the hilt in support of reasonable and necessary
discipline to improve my children and their prospects.
In previous posts, I have stated my belief that the best of the city
parents (and kids) are doing better than the best of the suburban parents
(and kids).
The argument you refer to was not a criticism of inner city parents, but
a recognition that in many cases they are simply not available.
It is difficult to include unavailable third parties in a viable solution
for the problems found in most of the urban public school systems.
Therefore we need to spend more time reworking the roles of people and
things that are within society's control:
Contractors
Teachers
Students
Tools
Books
Schools
(including Classrooms, Laboratories, Auditoriums, Cafeterias and
Gyms)
Best!
Liz
On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:27:49 -0400 Wilma de Soto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
Liz Campion mentioned about competent parents would work to send THEIR
children to private or magnet schools. However, THOSE parents (City and
Suburban) are the ones who would complain to School District
Administration if a teacher DARED to fail their child or give their child
a grade that would prevent them from going to a top college, and bring a
lawsuit against the School District.
Thats why administrators change grades after teachers have given them no
matter what the Academic Standards may be.
Where I sit, that doesnt make them much better than Inner City parents.
Small wonder kids dont respect teachers.
