Parents’ failure to impose moral values in the home has left many children out of control, with teachers now expected to effectively raise young people themselves. So says the head of Voice, Britain’s teachers’ union. Philip Parkin says the standard of parenting skills in the UK had suffered from a downward spiral in the last 15 years as generations of poor parents succeed each other. In a speech to the union’s annual conference, Parkin said long working hours and the decline in old-fashioned family structures has contributed to the problem.
“Schools are being required to take on more and more of the responsibilities that rightly belong to parents; and to provide more of the stability in children’s lives which should be provided by families. There is also the perception that, in general, the skills of parents are declining as one generation succeeds another.”
“In my last 10 or 15 years in school I saw a significant decline in parenting standards.” Parkin added. ”The shortening of many relationships, the creation of more step-families, the emphasis on parents going out to work and the consequent perception of the reduced worth of the full-time parent have all changed the way we behave and the character of childhood.”
I could be very wrong, but it’s hard to imagine such a naked critique of “parenting standards” issuing from a responsible U.S. union leader. For all the sturm und drang in the U.S. about accountability and overcoming societal ills, it says something about the overarching consensus on what schools ought to be able to do that these comments sound so, well, foreign.
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The last two posts about parents and commericalism and parents and cell phones are both so true.
The simplist explanation is commercialism. Then you add the theme of your previous post and you get a more profound analysis. Economics has made cell phones (like fast food) into a bargain, while nutrition and health are more expensive in intital outlay of dollars and money. All are linked to our fast-paced life, and sacrificing the longterm to the short term.
But I sense there is a third issue - a need for meaning and value. As the family weakens and loneliness increases, the need to stay connected increases. The cell phone is the ultimate, so far, in instant gratification.
The question - if I’m right - is how do we take this need for connectedness and meaning and build something durable on it. Overall, I don’t have a clue Right now, “the Big Sort” is winning. But education ought to be able to harness that energy. Kids flock to TFA not because its trendy but because it is hard. We all want challenges that are real. Somehow we need to promote a message that if you are hooked up to a cell phone talking nonstop to people like yorself, why not consider the challenge of education?
In the meantime, lets throw the book at anyone who drives while on a cell phone. (did I just write that? did I just let my inner Michelle Rhee come out?)
John — It’s interesting that you see the cell-phone effect as a cultural, rather than a radio-frequency-radiation, phenomena. I’m inclined to agree, so when I clicked over to the Reuters article and found the authors of the study suggesting that using hands-free devices would mitigate the problem, no matter what the underlying cause, I was rather appalled. I’m a fan of hands-free phones — they make phone calls a good time to unload the dishwasher and sort laundry — but they can only make the effect on parenting attention worse.
Last night on NPR they had a report about Craigslist in Los Angeles. It is both being used to make art, and to create community.
I don’t claim to understand what’s going on, but I like to lay back on the couch and read my New Yorker, while watching with one eye as the twenty somethings explore Craigslist, Facebook, etc.
That means I’m multitasking also, doesn’t it?
After spending $10,000 on in-vitro fertilization, the post-partum maternity nurse gave me a huge lecture on birth control. I guess she didn’t want me making that mistake again. I don’t know of any other human condition where more is demanded from each combined with the burden of their culpability and less is accorded to each because it would send the wrong message.
wow
very interesting
I’m used to U.S. parents being on the receiving end of regular scoldings from all sectors of the political spectrum, and at all levels of SES. (e.g.: Low-income parents aren’t involved; high-income parents are over involved.)
But you’re right — I’ve heard nothing like this. And I can’t imagine the head of either teacher’s union going off on parents in this way.
(Of course, maybe that would be better; maybe we’d be able to un-hinge the PTSA from the NEA…)
great post!