Parents are better teachers

Antonio Buehler makes several good points in his post Why Parents are Better Teachers than Trained Teachers.  He starts with:

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Across the land we continue to hear the cries that public education is under attack. That greedy governors and legislators are destroying public education because they cannot justify increasing spending on top of the many thousands of dollars spent per student per year for horrid outcomes (in terms of testing, graduation rates, college readiness or life preparation). These people claim that if only we supported the teachers, if only we spent more, if only we would let government have even more control over the lives of our children, then finally, they’d be able to provide something better than a terrible product. It’s never the system’s fault, and it’s never the teachers’ fault. It’s always the fault of those who do not want to fork over more taxpayer dollars into an endless pit, or even better, it’s the fault of the parents for not being more “involved”.

Their arguments are generally absurd, but I agree to a point that some blame belongs with parents. While the public education system is a failure for a plethora of reasons which have nothing to do with parenting, the system would not exist if not for the parents who send their 50 million children to public schools each year. It’s true, parents who send their kids off to public schools are often less involved because they often believe that it is not their job to educate their own children, but that it is the job of the state to educate their children. This is an unfortunate belief, considering that parents are most often better teachers than the college educated, certified teachers who populate the public education system.
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One of the many problems with government schools is that no one takes responsibility.  There is so much finger pointing, especially by those who have the power of force, of the purse and are in the classroom.  The government forces parents to put their children in schools, but the government doesn't take responsibility for making sure the children learn.  Politicians toss money like drunken sailors at the schools, but they don't make sure the money is accounted for.  And the teachers are always wringing their hands about how they are doing a wonderful job and it isn't their fault the students aren't learning.

One of the great things about homeschooling is parents step up the plate and accept the responsibility to make sure their children learn.