Today, I read an interesting article about a middle school in Maine that will begin to dispense birth control pills to middle school kids in an attempt to control the increase in pregnancies (17 in one year).
It seems that over the last 20 years or so, schools have slowly been required by society to take on some of the roles that parents usually have. Take discipline for example. When I was in elementary school, I was more frightened about what my father would do to me if I misbehaved than what the administration would do to me. Parents disciplined their kids back then. Today parents defend kids against discipline by school authorities and often threaten to sue if any discipline is given- even when the kid did wrong and deserves the consequences. We have even stopped calling it punishment and have replaced the word with consequences or discipline.
Nutrition and food choices used to be policed by parents, who would ensure that their children ate breakfast and healthy foods. Today, schools have taken over by serving breakfasts, morning and afternoon snacks and even supper, along with a lunchtime meal. Classroom teachers have to teach children about food and obesity and exercise and hygiene because some parents fail to do so.
Home used to be a place where kids felt safe and protected and a place they wanted to be. Now, kids come to school an hour early and stay for hours afterword just to avoid being left home alone or in an abusive situation. Schools purchase metal detectors, security guards and pass card door opening systems in order to ensure that kids are safe in school. Teachers spend hours in training to learn how to identify abused, neglected, and dangerous children when we could be teaching instead. All of this happens because some parents don't pay attention to their children.
Now schools have become the place where kids learn about sex, birth control and parenting, again, because some parents are not doing their jobs.
I understand why some of my students call me mom and why some come to me with problems that parents should help them with. I also understand why some teachers decide not to have children or why some burn out and leave the profession. No where in my training to become a teacher did it say the I had to parent someone else's children, but I am. Most all educators do. We ties shoes, wipe noses, teach right from wrong, listen and help because we care. But this can't go on forever.
Where will this parent to school stransition stop and can this switch go on like this much longer?
