I have taught children from 4-year-old kindergarten through high school seniors, with a little bit of graduate-level instruction thrown in as well. I feel like I'm pretty competent in that. (One of my measures of success is that I have not seen any of the kindergartners I taught 30+ years ago show up on "America's Most Wanted.")
But I (and others I work with) are finding that we have to do as much, or more, educating of the parents as we do of the children. And this is all in Christian schools in the Bible Belt, with professing Christian parents.
Just in the past 3-5 years, parent problems have increased dramatically. Let's say the teacher says the second-grader was disrespectful to her in class. Up until a few years ago, practically all parents would say, "Tell me how he was disrespectful, and I'll make sure it never happens again!" The child could count on a spanking at home (or as they called it in rural Mississippi, a "whoopin'"), and I could count on that child shaping up.
Now what happens? Almost all parents will say to the teacher, "What do you mean he was disrespectful? We have taught him to stand up for what he thinks. When you told him he needed to write his spelling words 10 times and he said he wasn't going to do it, that's because he believed he already knew how to spell those words and he thought it would waste his time. He was telling you that you need to find a better way for him to use his time - and, frankly, we think the same thing."
Again, I'm not just talking about the liberal humanistic parents - these are professing Christians who say they believe the Bible and who go to church.
So Christian educators find that we are more and more having to teach the parents how to be Christian parents: that their children are born sinners in need of salvation and sanctification, that the role of parents is not to be their child's friend but to be his parent, that godly teachers can help parents see things in their children which might not come out at home.
Oh, for the good old days!
But I (and others I work with) are finding that we have to do as much, or more, educating of the parents as we do of the children. And this is all in Christian schools in the Bible Belt, with professing Christian parents.
Just in the past 3-5 years, parent problems have increased dramatically. Let's say the teacher says the second-grader was disrespectful to her in class. Up until a few years ago, practically all parents would say, "Tell me how he was disrespectful, and I'll make sure it never happens again!" The child could count on a spanking at home (or as they called it in rural Mississippi, a "whoopin'"), and I could count on that child shaping up.
Now what happens? Almost all parents will say to the teacher, "What do you mean he was disrespectful? We have taught him to stand up for what he thinks. When you told him he needed to write his spelling words 10 times and he said he wasn't going to do it, that's because he believed he already knew how to spell those words and he thought it would waste his time. He was telling you that you need to find a better way for him to use his time - and, frankly, we think the same thing."
Again, I'm not just talking about the liberal humanistic parents - these are professing Christians who say they believe the Bible and who go to church.
So Christian educators find that we are more and more having to teach the parents how to be Christian parents: that their children are born sinners in need of salvation and sanctification, that the role of parents is not to be their child's friend but to be his parent, that godly teachers can help parents see things in their children which might not come out at home.
Oh, for the good old days!