Educators...

BobS knocks one out of the park with an epic-level fisking of an article on CNN.

I agree with the vast majority of his sentiments - while acknowledging that there are some really good teachers out there - but noted (in comments there as well) that he's writing this from the point of that rara avis: an involved and concerned parent.

Too many parents have abdicated their roles and responsibilities to the (broken) education system: before-school program, school breakfast, school, school lunch, school, after-school program, maybe athletics, drama, yearbook or other clubs, and so forth. It is not an understatement to say that a child in today's education system may spend as much as 14 hours per day in the care of educators. When I was in high school, I was on the bus at 7:10am, classes started at 8, track practice began immediately following school at 3 and went until about 5, and yearbook ran from 6:30 until 9:30 (twice a week).

That said, my parents parented me. We talked. Not a one-sided lecture from them, ignored or grunted at, but a talk. They'd ask how my day was, and ask questions as we went along. I didn't really talk to them about my relationships in high school, but then again, there weren't a lot of relationships to talk about. ;-) I knew they were always there to listen if I needed it.

They had expectations of me, and I met those expectations, or I faced consequences. Nothing so pedestrian as corporal punishment... no, my parents were the masters of disappointment. A look, a sigh, a shake of the head - that worked far better than a belt ever could have. A few teachers managed the same thing in my years at school - I wanted to please them, because I was hungry to learn, and the more I pleased them, the more I could learn.

I have a sneaking suspicion that type of teacher is a dying breed in our education system... parents, step up and fix it.