This start of new year sees yet another rant. My apologies in advance. Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings, looming nominations hearings and the like pale when compared to the crisis caused by parents who abdicate the responsibility of teaching their own offspring. Sorry--I said it. And it embarrasses a lot of parents because they know it's true of them. Sometimes when others see irresponsibility and name it in a rare moment of honesty and directness, said party reacts angrily and tosses the blame on another. When parents complain that "teachers aren't doing their job in school" and use as evidence the "two hours of homework their fourth-grader" has received I shudder with anger. I even sweat and flush a bit. You want to know why? Sadly, and in probably too many cases, teachers are assigning homework in this amount because parents haven't done their job at home before the child hits school age. Too many admittedly time-strapped parents are abdicating their responsibility to educate their own children in the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, and the appreciation of the habits of the mind. As anecdotal proof that this is happening, I know a too many parents who delay teaching the ABCs until far too late. Parents would prefer to crack a beer and watch a hockey game--hey, who wouldn't??--while their kids sit by, heads buried in personal gaming devices, smart phones (texting and viewing God only knows what), or even watch, banished to their rooms by daddy's sports game, the high-definition TV complete with a tricked-out cable package and--likely as not--an X-Box to boot? Just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't know what goes on in homes with kids--hell, I teach kids for a living, and they tell their teachers a lot. Believe me. I know. ...and your secret's not safe with me. I'm going to shout it from the rooftops.
What would it cost parents, and what satisfaction might they actually derive from it (if the offspring were conceived for the "right" reasons in the first place) the first time their child correctly makes change with them, or strings together a sentence from just sight reading from a page in a new book that you both picked out at the library or Barnes & Noble. Pride? Happiness? I imagine these moments would be real highlights in the raising of a theoretical--in my own case--child. Sitting and rhyming just for the heck of it, making silly poems together, writing music, teaching him or her what notes mean, talking about the importance of being an expressive, loving, kind, and generous person. These are all lessons in short supply at home for too many of the children I love seeing and teaching every day. So instead of complaining that your child "has too much homework," a simple thanks will be enough--I might just be doing your job for you. And no, you don't pay me for it, you pay me to teach them a foreign language, to be proficient in it, to travel and discover the world wide on their own. The rest you get for free. Got it?
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