Recently the news has reported on "the helicopter parent." These are parents who hover when a student go off to college. The parents will call the teachers and asking for special consideration, or badger the university administration to make sure their child gets the "right" class.
Japan has developed a similar problem: "Monster Parents."
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The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White.
For the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents”.
For they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the monster parents had cowed the teachers into submission, forcing the school to admit to the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role.
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It is a bit mind boggling.
(Hat tip: Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher)
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Technorati tags: government schools, public school, public education, education
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