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My response to a response
By patti | April 18, 2008
I was looking on the local paper’s Web site and ran across an article written by Mona Charon about why the public schools are failing to teach ethics or character. There were three replies, one of which was the obligatory, “Oh, if only parents were doing their job….” which seems is the stock answer for any criticism of the public schools. I wrote a reply but it is longer than the allowed character limit, so I’m going to post it here:
It always gets to me when those who criticize the public venues such as public schools are they themselves then criticized with “well, if only the parents would do it….”
Problem is for the last 50 years or so, the public school system and social workers in the government system tell parents that they know what’s best for kids. After all, they are the experts. No matter if their own children are hellions. It doesn’t matter because they have the degree or the credential. That’s what make them all knowing about these things.
Not only do we have the public sector telling parents-either implicitly or explicitly-that they know best, the public in general has been brainwashed with the current philosophy that there is no right and wrong. “What’s wrong to you isn’t wrong to me.” It is no wonder that parents have no bearings. But please don’t blame the parents. It’s not as if those teachers in schools have any better insight into teaching children, their own or the public, values or character. They’re the same parents who are probably not teaching their own children character at home. Parents and how they’re raising their children have been heavily influenced by what the experts have said over the last 50 years.
The reason the schools are doing the character training is because there is a problem. But that’s not the solution and I could have told them so and helped them save their pennies. Learning character comes from working and playing and living side-by-side with people of character and integrity. No one does that any more because the experts tell them it’s better to send their kids to day care and pre-school so that they can excel academically and socially—HAH! They offer up their kids character on an altar of academics that is only an illusion. They’re wrong, wrong, wrong. Common sense tells us so, but we can’t let common sense speak because it disagrees with the experts.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Nice response. It’s very true. If one doesn’t see character modeled, it can’t be taught. The schools don’t set out to teach kids to swear or be promiscuous or whatnot, but it happens.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Right, Patti. The system rules us - the education industry. I’m only a “sheltered” homeschool mom, but I’ve heard plenty stories from parents who try to be involved in the public school system and aim to clue the authorities in on what their own children need. Their voices are rarely, if ever, heard within the system we have built and continue to fund.
You’re so right about the ways character is taught and absorbed - side-by-side interaction with people of character in a reality-based environment. Thanks for sharing your response!