Involving Parents and Teachers

My apologies for the lax posting over the past two weeks — I've been busy with a research proposal, which I will write a bit more about some other time. I just read this very interesting article by Jay Mathews, a well-known education writer in the Washington Post, titled Why Easy Grading Is Good for Your Career. Mathews lists out school reforms proposed by teachers he interviewed, and assesses them based on their potential and viability. It's a great but quick read, and I recommend it.

I agree with Mathews's assessment of all the proposed reforms — I'm not a fan of teacher tenure, and I absolutely agree that some sort of standardised testing is a must for most education systems. What strikes me the most is that most of the viable and high-potential reforms are those which involve parents and teachers.

Two of the highest-rated reforms, for example, involve parents in the process of discipling unruly children, and improving students' study skills. Most parents from uneducated and low-income backgrounds probably did not do very well in school, if they went to school at all. To expect them to help with their children's homework, or to know how to enforce study discipline, is a pretty tall expectation, and one that will not be met by very many parents. Mathews recommends arranging counseling for families with troubled students, and offering night classes for parents interested in learning how to study.

Mathews also strongly recommends involving teachers and parents equally in the setting of education standards. Instead of having the national curriculum set by bureaucrats, he suggests that each school collect recommendations from teachers and parents, and forward these for consideration at the state and then federal levels by a committee equally involving civil servants, parents, teachers and business executives. The ultimate result will be a curriculum developed by the grassroots, while having passed muster at the national level.

At the same time, Mathews insists that teachers have the freedom to decide how to prepare students for the national education standards. The national curriculum should not prescribe specific textbooks or teaching aids. Teachers know best what will work with their students, and need the freedom to do their work on their own terms; let the exam results be the judge of what works best.

While obviously very idealistic, I think Mathews's recommendations form a good basis for ideals we should work towards to. The education process in our country is very bureaucratised, with little input from parents or teachers. But this is not how things should be: we want our children to learn at the feet of their parents and their teachers, not civil servants or politicians. Our education system is failing our young because our system does not have a role for parents or teachers to play. If we want an effective education system, we need to get teachers and parents actively involved in the learning process.