Opinion
Has entertainment replaced education on top of our priority list for children?
Soccer mom? Minivan? Entertainment center in a minivan? X-Box?
What do all these have in common? In countries where education surpasses us these terms may not even be understood. These terms all have to do with providing distractions to children during the time that has been traditionally been devoted to learning.
Have we placed “Entertainment” on a pedestal and replaced education as the chief priority for our children? It would appear to be so. Even in our “schools” there is a great deal of emphasis, or diversion, to entertainment.
Why is it that there are far more adults attending a little league, or soccer match than attending a school board meeting when the schools are failing many of these same children who are playing soccer or baseball? Do the parents think that there are better futures for their kids by improving their soccer or baseball skills than improving their Algebra or French skills?
Perhaps we should have programs like Little League, for French? Should we have learning programs that we could install in minivans? Neither of these concepts probably makes much sense to most parents. Would they make sense to parents in those countries that have done so well? I would guess that they are already there, except, wait! In those countries kids aren’t going to soccer practice after school, they are going to another school!
As has been mentioned here, a parental poll found that most parents were concerned that their children were “Satisfied” with their school. Walt Disney does an excellent job of “Satisfying” children! “Grand Theft Auto” seems to work well with some older kids. Some kids seem to only attend school to “Play” sports and even go so far as to suggest that they have selected colleges where they can go and “Play” a sport!
Aren’t these some clear indications that “Entertainment” has surpassed knowledge as the objective of many parents and students? Is it any wonder that in some of the competitions such as “Spelling Bee’s” and “Geography Bee’s” the winners are often home schoolers? Could it be that home schooled students are in it for “Learning” and not for “Playing?” Could it be that the learning environment for these children is more focused on acquisition of knowledge than our schools?
I was having a discussion with one of my friends the other day. He pointed out that the schools are clearly the finest, and cheapest, daycare centers ever invented! With any other daycare center you have to bring your kid to the center, pay for their attendance, and then pick them up at the end of the day! At our schools all of these services, as well as perhaps two meals are provided.
This has allowed the parents the “Freedom” to disassociate themselves from a substantial obligation for training children! The results of this are pretty well known.
Our now retired Superintendent I believe pointed out that the most successful students in our district were attending schools where they had to provide their own transportation. Public Academy, International Baccalaureate Program, Technology Access, and Aviation High School are prefect examples of this. Parents, in most cases, have taken the time to research what is best for their children and sometimes sacrificed their lifestyles to make sure that their children are “Educated” as opposed to being “Satisfied.” I am sure that parents would be far more “Satisfied” if they could use the daycare offerings of the school district, but they have decided that their address did not determine the best options for their children.
What Ogbu stated isn’t a practice of involved parents. Ogbu stated, “Parents feel it is their role to move to Shaker Heights, pay the higher taxes so their kids could graduate from Shaker, and that's where their role stops."
Sadly, as measured by school board attendance vs Little League attendance, we seem to have a much higher concern about “hitting the ball” than we do about mastering some French verbs.
The outcome of this distortion of values has placed Washington at 35th in the nation in high school completion. How good is our ranking at Little League? Our Soccer Moms are working hard on this!
So....are you blaming MOMS?
Excuse me sir..but mom's are not the ones to blame here. You yourself sat on the School Board...and what good did you achieve for our schools? Having a large attendance at the school board meetings won't change things, because we are not given the opportunity to express our concerns, and if we do, there is no follow up. It's excuse after excuse, and the School Board protecting the Superintendant's office. We elect our school board members, who by the way are supposed to be supporting and working for the good of the children, but it seems no one has a backbone to fight for education. All we hear is blame and ideas, but no real action. I teach my children at home what they should be learning in school, because the teachers don't seem to have the time. Look at the whole picture of why education is failing, and stop blaming the parents.
Stop Blaming Moms!
In continuation of my previous comments....I AM NOT blaming the teachers here either. They are under strict guidelines to follow. I am a active volunteer in the Federal Way Schools, and I know the Teachers are not happy with our education system either.
School Board is Useless
I have been to school board meetings. If you decide to ask a question, you have about 3 minutes to ask your question and get ti answered no matter how detailed it is. You do not get a discussion on it. I contacted the school board, because I was having issues with my children beening assaulted, bullied and harassed at school too many times to count over the last, at least 5 years. My response from the school board was, we can not meet with you, we have to protect the superintendent from slander. Number one they had NO idea what I was going to discuss and secondly, why would you have to protect the superintendent from slander if you have No IDEA what I want to say. I think you need to look at the running of the Federal Way School District. I think there is alot of covering up going on in that district. If they went back to teaching our children, instead of training them to take a test. Maybe, these kids would be interested in learning and getting an education. All these teachers are allowed to do is cover bits of this and bits of that. Enough to make sure that they covered everything for the BIG TEST.
So, why don't you tell me now, why I should attend a school board meeting. I thought we elected the school board for the benefit of our children and not for the protection of the Superintendent.
I could go on more about the education my children have received from the Federal Way School District. I now elect to contact the federal government regarding what is going on in this district.
What?????
I can't believe what I just read. How do you come up with this stuff?
How dare you blame mom's that give their kids both an eduction and sports. I AM a so... called soccer mom as you put it. I am very involved in my kids school and their eduction, both my children have high GPA's. For over the last 9 years, I have been involved in our PTA.
I have found that the school board is not very helpful with anything that the Teachers or Schools really need. You promise stuff that we all want to hear to get elected and then fall thru with not doing any of it.
Do not blame us parents or the wonderful teachers that we have in our School Dist. They put up with a lot of crap from the School Dist. to give our kids the so called GOOD education that you all think is great, just so you can have your test scores. They teach our kids what you people tell them to teach. When it is usually just bits-n-pieces of so much just so our kids can pass the schools high priority test to look good.
The Teachers and the parents hate how they have to teach our kids. Our kids ARE the ONES getting HURT! They don't know half of what they really should know. We talk to our kids about what they have learned and they don't have much to say. Our kids don't get the education that they really deserve. If the state and the school board really cared about our kids futures than they would go back to old school teachings. Our kids and the teachers would all be better for it.
Where's Your Response?
Funny how Mr. Hoff seems to have a lot to say, but won't respond to questions asked on here.
Give me your question!
Please give me a specific question.
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