sounds like
MOC0428's wife is feeling the heat.

Sorry the school fails and you blame the parents. WRONG>.The state holds the school responsible and so do the parents. When teachers start blaming parents they become jokes and should get out of the profession.

justsomeonehere: Really, I'm just wondering where you read anywhere on this page that the "only" reason for these issues are bad parenting????
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Perhaps you should learn to read more clearly before you start bashing others (wrongfully).
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justmy414: I think people are generalizing a bit but they aren't that far off. There are many students in those programs that just don't care. They may have a disability but they certainly are not trying to overcome it. Keep in mind that being is special education does not necessarily mean that they are cognitively disabled. There are kids in there with behavioral and emotional disabilities as well as cognitive disabilities.

The real problem is the NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act). How can our government expect ALL children to be at the same level. It is not possible. Someone in 8th grade that reads at a 3rd grade level is taking the same test as all the other kids. A teacher may read some of the test to help them a bit but they can't do much more than that.

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I guess my point was that the testing is not fair to begin with so holding teachers or parents totally accountable is not fair. We should try and get that Act changed so that it works well for each child. There are other ways to make sure teachers and districts are doing their job but this Act falls far short from accomplishing that.

justsome1here-I am assuming you have had some formal training and education to make this statement and criticize the education system. You are right; Just because a child can regurgitate facts and ace a test does not mean that child has actually learned how to use those facts. That, my friend, was how things used to be done. As a teacher, my training and education never stops or becomes "stagnant." Teachers are constantly coming up with new ways to reach children. We reflect on our teaching style and change things that don't work. We use authentic assessments, "best practices," and understand that education is a journey where the process is more important than the destination. Should parents expect the teachers to discover ways for their children to reach their full potential? Yes, and we do, but shouldn't parents be more focused on the their expectations for their children? The lack of trust and respect you display for education mirrors that in which I see in some of my students. Times have changed since you were in school, and so has the way teachers teach.

h0rselvngrl-where I teach, teachers are too busy to be lazy. If something does not work for me, I look to myself to make a change. I don't project blame on the people trying develop solutions to the problem. It's better to light a candle than curse the dark.

Justsomeonehere1~~~> I agree with you. SOME teachers have become SO lazy!

People posting on this particular subject have come to the conclusion (wrongfully) that the only reason that children do not excel in school is because of bad parenting. A parents lack of emphasis on the importance of education MAY be a contributing factor but it is not the SOLE reason that children underachieve. The way children are being taught has become stagnant and has not moved forward. There has always been an overemphasis on letter grades and not enough emphasis on measuring learning through performance. Just because a child can regurgitate facts and ace a test does not mean that child has actually learned how to use those facts. Instead of punishing children for not getting good grades (as most people here seem to thing they should be) the emphasis should be placed on WHY they are not reaching full potential and HOW that can be achieved. That IS the role of teachers and that IS the obligation that school officials have to their students and that IS what parents should expect.

You are missing the point that these children are disabled. This means for some reason they are not physically compariable to the regular students. To blame parents for thier childrens disability is wrong. Like Trish I have three children, two college honor students and one who struggles to meet expectations for reading and math at age level. Like Trish, I have purchased tutoring, worked on homework, have the teacher on speed dial and talk with the school constantly. Children are not all equal and don't blame the parents for everything. By the way, perhaps you should talk to the district attorney about charging parents with felony child abuse for spanking a child who had a long list of behavior issues at school and the bus, before you start bashing parents.

Right on Lake!
It all starts when they are young, when you teach them simple things, like to look adults in the eye and say "thank you" or "I am sorry."
Re parents unreasonably angry at school officials: you are certainly correct, but schools owe it to all of us to stand thier ground.

L7: I think that too often parents blame teachers for their children's performance...and frequently don't allow them to be punished in school. I think that teacher's and administrator's hands are literally tied when it comes to punishing children. Parent's see it as an attack on their parenting skills, and then lash back; instead of welcoming the dicipline.
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I know a woman who has a real hellion for a seven year old. She explains his bad behavior by saying: "he's a boy, all boys are like this," or when he gets in trouble at school: "his teacher doesn't like him." She's even gone as far as to tell her seven year old that he doesn't need to listen to his teacher, because she doesn't know what she's talking about.
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What kind of message does that send to a seven year old? How much respect will he have for authority, or anyone/anything for that matter if he's taught this way?

Trish: While your third born seems to be having the most trouble at school out of all four, could you imagine how much more trouble there would be if you weren't as concerned as you are? Too often that is the case. I am not suggesting that if all parents were competent/responsible ther would be NO issues, I am saying that there would be far fewer.
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Dear Trish,
I certainly did not mean that parenting is easy. I have a number of kids too. Some are easier than others. Some test the limits. Often. But they know that there is a limit, and at home they can learn this the easy way or the hard way.
To your point: For every concerned parent like you, how many more are there that dont return teacher phone calls, dont show up for conferences, or answer a school's concern with something like "so what do you want me to do about it?" I have seen them, and you, I am sure, have seen them, and this is the problem. Our schools, in my opinion, have no decent limits when it comes to appropriate behavior, and when taxpayers are required to spend millions each year, they deserve value for their money. Indeed, if parents and schools dont set limits, even if its hard, little johnny will eventually be out in the world with absolutely no skills and a devastating misunderstanding of life's behaviorial limits.

L7, If what you say is true and parenting is the problem can you explain something to me?
I have 4 children. The oldest was very successful in school, straight A' student, never got into trouble, never skipped and graduated in the top of their class.
The second maintained passing grades(A's-C's), never skipped, never got in trouble and graduated.
The third barely maintains. School is an everyday struggle. No amount of encouragement or punishment seems to make a difference. We have tried therapy and tutors. I spend countless hours helping him with homework, studying for test, etc. No help. He is involved in sports, as the all the other kids were or are too. Overall great kid, just doesn't do well in school.
The fourth again is a straight A student.
They are all great kids and are pleasant to be around (or so I have been told).
So why is it, with all of them having the same parenting, that one has so much trouble with school and the other three don't or didn't if parenting is the problem?

L7~~> I am using your post......as I do agree with part of it.

"Up the standards, up the homework, and up the behavior requirements!"
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I completely agree with this! Students are not given half as much homework now, as I was given back in 98-2001!
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"If kids do not comply, they should be removed or expelled from school, or placed in what was once called Reform School. This will force lazy, careless parents to discipline their kids to perform."
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I agree with this in part, but it honestly depends on what that kid is doing wrong. If it is simple fixable behavior, then yes discipline them, but do not expel them! Now if they are selling,buying, or anything to do with drugs,or behavior that is un-called for (hitting/attacking/fighting/etc) then yes, expel them. But do not sit there and blame the parents ALL of the time, as some kids are getting plenty of discipline at home, and are a completely different person at school. And btw those "reform" schools such as the few they offer in Janesville do not benefit some kids, sometimes they only make matters worse. J-M-O!

My only gripe with the teachers and administrators is that they tolerate bad behavior and poor achievement. Enable is actually a better word.

They, we, all need to blow a bugle about bad parenting, and then do something about it.

sissy: I will thank you for my wife who happens to work in this department at that school. They (teachers)all try very hard to have all their students succeed. It has been stated many times on this blog but much of these scores comes down to parenting. The teachers cannot teach if the students are not willing to listen.

I'm really glad to see that there hasn't been any teacher bashing about this article yet.

sissy: Have you had experience with any other schools in the district? If so, have you had any situations where the teacher's were at fault? Do you think it is a lack of competent parenting that has led Franklin in this direction?
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I have a grandson who goes to Franklin and is in the disability classes. I couldnt ask for better teachers in that school. They go above and beyond to help these kids in any way. The teachers are doing their work, and very well. I just wanted everyone to know my feelings on this.

An exam for parenting is indeed needed. It would have stopped my brother from further contaminating the gene pool.

L7: I agree wholeheartedly with your post. I'll even one-up you, though, I assert that the standards even on the college level have been lowered over the past 30 years.
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Don_Diego: I've thought about exit exams, too. If you look at it, American society uses a form of exit exams when regulating potentially harmful actions all of the time: driving, practicing medicine, practicing pharmacy, practicing law, etc. One common objection is that many do not "test" well. I disagree with the term "many." I do agree that a small number of people don't handle the pressure of tests well, but there are alternate forms of "testing" besides sitting down and writing answers that can be afforded to those people.
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It seems obvious that the real issue here is a lack of parenting. I agree that there are bad teachers...but assert that those numbers are few and far in between. I think the best course of action would be to require that an exam of sorts needs to be passed before one can have children...while there are going to be obvious objections to this by many, I think it is the best way to handle the issue. Society has no problem testing to avoid a negative outcome when it comes to driving, policing, doctoring, etc. I wonder what could be more dangerous than bad parenting? The suggestion does seem outrageous, but if one really thinks about it, it really makes sense.

A gropu of students go to the same school, have the same teachers, and are taught the same material. Some do very well, go on to major colleges, etc... Some do very poorly, drop out, etc... Why? What is the difference? Some kids are smarter than others? NO! Some live in poverty? Even poor kids do well, although not at the same rate, so that can't be the answer. The teachers favor some of others? Perhaps in a few cases. What are the determining factors to a child's success? The #1 reason some students do well and others don't is parenting. Poor parents who place a high emphasis on school, their children will do well. Upper-class parents who don't, their children will do poorly. These are factors that are not controllable by any school district anywhere, no matter how good the teachers are.

The easiest way to make improvement is have exit exams for all grade levels. If a child fails to pass these, he/she does not move on no matter the excuse. This will put a stop to all the social promotion that takes place. Afterall, if a child is neither proficient or advance proficient in that subject area (many of them in all) why are they being promoted? The other thing this will accomplish is to put a stop to all the students who do not take this test seriously. I have seen students fill in the bubbles on the test as soon as they are handed out. What can a teacher do about this? There is NO incentive for the students to do well. If they know they will not matriculate, they might take it a bit more seriously.

My kids attend or have attended Franklin. I never see kids do homework anymore, and I believe it is because most would not do it even if it was assigned. Classroom behavior is outragous, and only gets worse at Parker. To cover for vacant parenting, (to put it mildly) the schools cop-out and dumb-down the curriculum, tolerate filthy language, and obnoxious students.

Solution: 1. Sames sex classes remove the showboating and alot of the innapropriate behavior. 2. Up the standards, up the homework, and up the behavior requirements! If kids do not comply, they should be removed or expelled from school, or placed in what was once called Reform School. This will force lazy, careless parents to discipline their kids to perform.

It worked in the old days, but society was not as sophisticated then...

This concept of all students being proficient or advanced is really, really stupid. But it's part of a stupid law, so what can you expect?