Our education system is truly in a precarious position, and at this point it seems to be difficult to navigate this ship to safety. For many who love teaching and are good at it, they have demands of teaching to criteria and keeping up with technology, the demands of parents and political pressures. I will address technology further in a later issue of the series.

Are there better ways to teach our children? Absolutely, but even how to teach our children has fallen victim to power struggles. People are battling over their “right” way of teaching, and few want to acknowledge their own “wrongs” for fear of losing power, prestige, and/or status.

If we are all being honest, then we have to admit that there are a certain percentage of teachers and administrators who should not be employed in the profession at all. They may either be burned out, have risen above their skill level, never should have become educators, or changes in technology have left them behind. I believe that some of these individuals know who they are, and they feel terrified that others will figure it out. What people tend to do who feel afraid to be figured out do is often deflect onto others and point out their flaws, rather than look at their own. What I see from my experiences is that this is some of the education that our children are getting.

We have become a society of victims. This is not the first time that I have said this, but I feel it more than ever. When things happen in life that we feel cause us pain, we tend to make it someone else’s fault. For students, it is often the teacher’s fault. For parents, it is often the teachers’ or administrators’ fault. For teachers, it is often the students’ or administrators’ fault. For administrators, it may be the students’, parents’, teachers’ or politicians fault. The tragedy is when we teach our children to not take responsibility for their part in situations. Pointing fingers and making excuses from any of these perspectives does not teach self-respect or respect for others.

Where there are victims, there is little trust, because the only thing that a “victim” can trust is that sooner or later they are going to feel betrayed and/or persecuted again by someone. Is this the school of hard knocks that our children are attending? I feel that we have lost the ability to take responsibility for the part that we play in the problems with our education system, and the problems with our society.

If we are going to improve the education of our children, we all have to see the wisdom in taking responsibility for our part in the problem. As adults, we have to recognize that we are guides and teachers to our children. We have to find the maturity to recognize that there is a problem and seek a solution. We also have to recognize that we may have to look outside ourselves to find the answers, together. Sometimes wisdom is knowing when to seek guidance outside ourselves.

Stay tuned for the Parent Trap.

Respectfully,

Dr. E…

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