I think of it that parents need to teach their kids how to behave, not math. Kids who come to class and don't listen, talk when the teacher is talking and disturb the other kids is going to be a problem. Children who act out violently or with screaming when confronted create big problems. Children who are not adjusted to being respectful towards other children and grownups will ruin any school.
That job is in my mind the job of the parent, the teacher should not have to use math class to try and get a child to be respectful. This is what it in my mind means when you tell someone that parents need to "carry their load".
If the teacher needs to do all these additional jobs, then I think we need to change the whole institution of school.
Those engaged parents will also be the first to complain if the teachers spend too much time with the children who don’t get that at home. So without engaged parents and a supportive home environment, children are at a significant disadvantage.
I mean, society could also decide that houses shouldn't have roofs, but then they wouldn't be houses would they.
The word for "school where you don't learn to read" in the rest of the educated world is "daycare".
Why can't they bear the load?
- Because they are underfunded and understaffed
- Because society doesn't think it's the school's responsibility to teach
If society decided that reading and writing should be taught in school, then it would be taught in school and the system would be designed such that teachers would easily handle it.
Your "parents have a load to carry" in this case is throwing people under the bus like single mothers who are working two or more jobs just to put food on the table.
Your attitude is that their children should be left behind because those children belong to the unlucky sperm club.
And those children grow up to be disadvantaged and poor and the cycle continues indefinitely. I find it vile and revolting that HN can talk about the wonders of Elon Musk disrupting the automobile industry, can debate whether scooters will disrupt the ride sahring industry, which in turn disrupted the taxi industry, and so on...
And then when it comes to poverty, the attitude is, "C'mon, carry your load or fall behind."
This community talks a good line about disruption, but if the only kind of disruption that interests us is the disruption that happens to make people into billionaires, it's time to stop pretending that we're "hackers" and start calling ourselves capitalists.
The education system needs to be disrupted from the bottom up, but it needs people who actually care about educating children more than negotiating term sheets.