First of all, I would like to send a shout out to my friend Laura for keeping it real with her comments on the last blog post. I often find it hard to keep on topic with the item I start, espcially with things like education and food and she expanded on the last rant about Arne Duncan's idea for school reform in a way that I think needs to be addressed as well. Apparently, Jack Cafferty does too. Mr. Cafferty is not one of my favorite newscasters but today I was intriqued by the title of this excerpt from his new book Now or Never, "Parents, your kids aren't that special". Once I started reading, I was surprised to find that he, like Laura, was touching on how school reform doesn't necessarily start at the schools. Here is a quote...
"I don't know the status of parenting in America. But I know a little about the status of education in America. Parents' growing inability to impose manners and limits on their kids when the kids are in school is reflected in record dropout rates, as well as teen drug and alcohol abuse, teen sex, and unwed pregnancies. Maybe it's parenting that's on the decline, more than the schools."
He goes on to say that the general public does a poor job parenting and we are all paying for it whether it is the family sitting next to you in a resturant with screaming kids that seems oblivious to the fact that you don't want to pay to hear their children scream or the declining state of our education system. I am not sure I appreciate the abrasive manner in which Jack Cafferty presents his material but I do agree with both he and Laura. Our society in general is too caught up with making sure our kids feel good about themselves, if we have enough money to make ourselves feel good and who to blame when we don't all feel hunky dorey that we we can't see where the problems really begin. Maybe we should start spending some of that education money on teaching parents how to parent instead of on lengthening how long our kids are in school. I wonder... do the studies Mr. Duncan is reading, which state India and China have brighter students, point out that those cultures also require high levels of obedience, discipline and respect? I am going to guess not.
Karen
