by Joseph Zavarella

Created on: September 26, 2008   Last Updated: February 11, 2009

I would not choose to think that the process of educating our children and young adults is akin to a power struggle between parents and students aligned against the teachers. The educational bureaucracy has over the years morphed into such a vast enterprise that it has overwhelmed the fundamental unit containing a teacher and a student who are respectively given a specific task to teach and learn whatever is prescribed.

I would propose the following in response to the question: Are We Giving Students Too Much Power Over Teachers? First, let me respond with, "Yes," I believe students have been enabled by teachers and administrators, with support from their parents to exert their particular agendas in the classroom and the school.

Consider this from a parent's point of view. The schools are composed of groups of unionized teachers, principals, custodians, teacher aides, monitors, and secretaries. They all represent a group of insiders that have a direct line to the Board Of Education through their respective union leaderships. If anyone in the school setting has power, these groups do. Parents, on the other hand, are virtually left to their own devices because school boards cannot or will not show any so-called favoritism by conceding to their wishes. Hence, the parents are often placed in a position of asserting themselves in the most aggressive manor that is possible.

The following paragraphs contain brief segments from my post on the Helium Education Community Board under the title of "The Failure of Public Schools."

As an insider in the public schools for some thirty years from the early 1960s to the early 1990s I must confess that I don't know where the notion came from or how the concept originated, but we always assumed that one of the public schools' major responsibilities was to help the children of immigrants to assimilate into our society. Children of immigrant parents would seldom exercise any behavior even remotely associated with the word, "Power." On the other hand, we seldom felt that we would, or should, usurp the parents' proper role of preparing their children for adulthood. Very simply put, we saw our job as that of teaching the kids how to read and write and in later grades to give them knowledge of subjects such as arithmetic, geography, history, science and literature. The concept of providing instruction on fostering appropriate social behaviors, (i.e. morality, honesty, etc.) in our society is something that has evolved as the schools have

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>