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Totally agree, especially with your second point. Both my parents are career educators (teachers, counselors and now professors). They personally tell me about

Totally agree, especially with your second point. Both my parents are career educators (teachers, counselors and now professors). They personally tell me about how "helicopter parenting" has increased in the time since they've gotten their degrees up to now. Parents are getting more and more involved (read: obsessive) about their childrens' education, sometimes to the detriment of the school process. Very often they'll blame teachers when their kids don't do well in class (not necessarily incorrect). My mother works in the inner city - parents there tend to be ambivalent about their childrens' progress unless they are relatively affluent, from what I've seen. On the other hand, my father works in a suburban private school, and the parents there push back much more often, especially when they aren't right. I can't say whether or not it's good or bad, but the climate of education in America has shifted from one of parents surrendering their kids and trusting the teachers to one of parents questioning the teachers when kids don't do well. Very curious.

girvo 13y ago
> Very often they'll blame teachers when their kids don't do well in class > (not necessarily incorrect) That's not a new phenomenon, imo, but it's still a pertinent one. Parents being involved in their kids schooling isn't inherently bad, but it can be taken too far. Just like the kids have limited time to be able to handle 5 hours of homework a night (!), teachers have limited time to handle every parent. That said, the fact it was done a lot through email is kinda neat, and would possibly make parent-teacher interactions scale better?
ronaldx 13y ago
As a teacher, I far prefer to have parents who are involved in their kids' education, than the parents who are not involved. There's a correlation between affluence and parent involvement, yes, but there's a stronger correlation between parent involvement and pupil engagement/learning. Edited to add: Helicopter parenting is often a symptom of poor communication between the school and the parent - better and happier personal communication tends to resolve tension.

girvo 13y ago

> Very often they'll blame teachers when their kids don't do well in class > (not necessarily incorrect) That's not a new phenomenon, imo, but it's still a pertinent one. Parents being involved in their kids schooling isn't inherently bad, but it can be taken too far. Just like the kids have limited time to be able to handle 5 hours of homework a night (!), teachers have limited time to handle every parent. That said, the fact it was done a lot through email is kinda neat, and would possibly make parent-teacher interactions scale better?

ronaldx 13y ago

As a teacher, I far prefer to have parents who are involved in their kids' education, than the parents who are not involved. There's a correlation between affluence and parent involvement, yes, but there's a stronger correlation between parent involvement and pupil engagement/learning. Edited to add: Helicopter parenting is often a symptom of poor communication between the school and the parent - better and happier personal communication tends to resolve tension.