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By Dr. Harry Tennant
Monday, April 25, 2011 Parental Involvement: In America, Parents Know Best... Or Do They?! -------->Ask An Adolescent! Federal...and most state law...in the United States affirm the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. "Parents know what is best for their children!" How many times have we all heard that? Yet, each of us probably know many parents who are extremely ill-suited to the task. Schools in America serve in an in loco parentis role. This legal designation literally means "in place of parent." In the physical absence of parents, both governmental and non-governmental entities are charged with care and control of the child. Schools---and educators within the schools---serve this role during the school day and at school-sponsored events. While these rights are not absolute and may be limited by the parent, even the "in loco parentis" designation is a stretch for many American parents. Properly understood, however, it just makes sense...and when it comes right down to it the child's parents really are the ultimate "deciders." Most parents in America---while they may have doubts within themselves---assert that they really do know what is best for their child. Given this context, consider the document you can download below that is a 35-page guide in Germany to: ..."instruct adolescent readers how to write...a parent education course in order to support their own parents and possibly those of younger schoolfellows in accomplishing their task." According to the Constitution of Germany..."Article 6 Paragraph 2: Care for and education of the children are the natural right of the parents and first and foremost their duty. The public community watches over their exercise." Accordingly..."A rationale why it seems a good choice for teachers to hold parent education courses and/or to write courses with their pupils is that teachers are pedagogues and already have a significant knowledge in this area, which seems likely to be beneficial for a course." This document is in response to a conclusion in Germany that: "The public community obligates a group of persons here that isn't necessarily sufficiently qualified for the task." They are not talking about the adolescents, but rather parents! This is a remarkable document that would raise the ire of many, if not most, parents in America. Imagine if your 8th grader came home and told you about a course he/she is writing under the leadership of their teacher to instruct you (his/her parent) how to do the job better!!! There just might be a backlash! Nonetheless, this is a content rich guide with valuable information for any parent who is secure enough to acknowledge that we could do a better job teaching young people to be parents...and to interact with their parents in ways that would make the entire community stronger. If this recognition and response were more common in the United States, would we have happier and better functioning children, adults, families, teachers, schools, and communities? Regardless, many parents in America would take offense to this document and certainly would object to it being used by teachers to guide adolescents to design a course specific to their parents! Try implementing this in an American school. Wrath would follow! Below this image of the first page of this 35-page document, is a link to download it as a .pdf Posted at 7:21 PM Keywords: Parental Involvement , Parent Education , Parenting Handbook , German Education 2 Comments |
