[Miscellany]

I feel like teaching is making me bitter and twisted.

I'm finding myself judging people namely stay at home parents (mums - let's face it) who don't actually do anything with their children in an educational sense before they come to school. I realise running a household is a full time job, but shouldn't part of the criteria of that particular full time job be going through the alphabet with their child once or twice? I'm disgusted by parents who have had 6-10 years at home apparently raising a family and their child comes to school not even knowing what the first letter of their name is. Maybe I'm just too uppity but all I want to do is call human services and scream neglect!

The reason for this is that I completely idealise the role of the stay at home parent in rearing a child in the early years before schooling. I think it is, bar none, the most important job in the world. It pisses me off to see children who come to school unable to form sentences, speak in monosyllables, don't recognise the alphabet and who have never picked up a pencil to do anything more than pick their nose with it. Talk about lazy parenting! It drives me crazy to hear 'well that's your job' (to teach the alphabet). It's such a passive way to parent. Even dogs get more training via the family than kids these days. This year over half my class know less than 6 letters of the alphabet coming into school. I work in a middle class area of town and I think it is quite frankly unacceptable for families that can afford to have a parent at home not to have invested time in that child in a mildly educational way in the 5 years before they come to school.

For fucks sake people, is it any wonder I'm bitter and twisted?

Labels: kids, school, soap box., stressed teachers

posted by M at 12:53 am 15 comments