As parents in the United States become more overprotective of their children, it is interesting to see the impact this has had on their interactions with teachers and their demands of their children's school. In the last 50 years, parents have experienced a dramatic increase in their concerns over their children's safety. For example, parents in the 1970's were around more but spent less time with their kids. 80% of children would walk alone to school compared to less than 9% now. Parents used to let their children play without supervision, but now parents use their children's free time to schedule play dates, classes, and organized sports. In addition to their concerns over safety, parents are also beginning to favor a more rigorous academic experience for their children. Starting in preschool, parents want their children learning academics, not playing.
Parents in other countries have both similar and different attitudes regarding concerns over children's safety and academic rigors. In England, there is a movement to bring back adventure playgrounds that encourage children to take appropriate risks during play. French parents are also more relaxed about their children. Chinese parents push for strong academics in preschools, while French parents are not as concerned with academics. These cultural differences are especially important for me to note because I teach an ethnically diverse population. Most of this diversity comes from Indian and Mexican students. The article, "5 Unique Things About Parenting in India," mentions that Indian parents focus on academics and discipline. During parent-teacher conferences with Indian parents, I see this parenting philosophy first hand. These parents place a substantial value on their children's academic success in Spanish. They will frequently ask me for additional materials to further enhance their children's education.
After teaching for two years, I have seen how the overprotective nature of parents impacts my job as well as the demands placed on my school. First, I notice how freshmen parents are overly worried about their child's adjustment to high school. Around the end of the first month of school, I get several parent phone calls stating that their child is having trouble adjusting to my class or high school in general. Parents look for ideas on how to jumpstart this process - what they can do to help their child study more efficiently or get ideas how to manage their workload. For the most part, these concerned parents have students who consistently get A's or B's in my class! To further help students adjust to my class, I will strongly emphasize study skills during the first quarter of Spanish 1 this fall.
In Illinois, there is a huge value placed on developing a student's social and emotional learning (SEL). "SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to recognize and manage their emotions, demonstrate caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations constructively." Some schools have SEL programs several times a month. Students watch videos and then discuss how they can resolve conflicts with their peers in an appropriate way. Although I do not work in a district that has an SEL program, I once taught an SEL lesson on bullying to my Spanish 2 class.
At St. Timothy's school in Honolulu, Jannie discussed how she now experiences a need to justify the school's curriculum. Dolores stated, "...we've had to get more professional at articulating to the parents how and why we do what we do." In my district, this takes the form of a daily goal that is thoroughly discussed with students. Teachers are strongly encouraged to post a daily goal using an "I can..." format. We read the goal out loud to the class, discuss why it is important, and then check that students met that goal at the end of the lesson. I have never had to justify my curriculum to a parent, but I do this every day with my class.
I see the toll that parents' desires for an academically rigorous course load take on students. The top students in my Spanish 3 class took three to five AP courses. These students often came to class exhausted. They tried to work on homework for other classes during Spanish because they were so overwhelmed with their schedule. As parental demands for strong academics increase, counselors frequently push for students to add more honors or AP classes to their schedule. Even when I make course recommendations, my department chairs have suggested that I recommend all students for the next level of Spanish regardless if they could handle the material. While this academically rigorous thinking works for some students, I do not think it is fair to assume that a tough course load works for all students. The article "AP classes: A problem for Massachusetts high schoolers?" describes how enrollment in AP classes is rising, but it is not always beneficial for students.
Furthermore, parents' safety concerns have impacted our schools. Cell phones serve as my biggest threat to classroom management. I do enjoy using them for specific activities, but otherwise, they present a huge distraction to my students. Teachers in my district must allow cell phones in class. We cannot confiscate phones even if the student is using them during an inappropriate time. I do believe that parents' concerns for contacting their children in case of an emergency are a huge reason why this policy exists. When I was a student, my mom would just contact the main office if there was an emergency. Now, parents want the ability to reach out to their children via text message before contacting the school.
Since I am not a parent, I was curious to see what my mother thought of the increase in safety and desires for rigorous academic curriculums that parents are experiencing now. We talked about how parents are more overprotective of their children now compared with parents of the past. My mother fondly remembers riding her bike all over the streets of her hometown by herself without a helmet. On the other hand, I never played outside without close adult supervision. My mom said, "I know people say that 'overprotecting' your kids will hurt them in their future. The difference is now there are a lot more strange individuals in the world. You have to be more aware of your children to protect them. Maybe they will not be as willing to take risks later in life, but at least they will be safe." Even though my mom's opinion contradicts existing data, I am sure her attitude is similar to many parents in today's society. Then, I asked my mom how academically rigorous a preschool classroom should be. In her opinion, preschool should be dedicated to teaching children how to interact socially with one another. Play time and making craft projects should be the focus. My mom and dad read thousands of books with my sister and me. She practiced the ABC's, basic math, and writing with us. She does not feel that it is the preschool's responsibility to teach students this information. She could see the importance of teaching academics if a parent worked all day. Because she was able to provide my sister and me with additional instruction outside of the preschool setting, she chose a preschool that was not academically rigorous.
Hi Katherine! Thank you for sharing your post; the readings made you think of different impacts that I had not made connections to, so I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts. It was very interesting to hear your perspective coming from a high school teacher, compared to mine, at the opposite end of the K-12 experience. ☺
ReplyDeleteIt’s very interesting that most of the parents who are concerned about their student’s grades and adjustments to school are often the ones whose students are performing well. This is something that I often see as well. I see parents being very concerned over behavior “issues” that really are just instances where a 5 year old needs a redirection, yet they are very concerned about it and think a punishment is needed. While there are other students who have consistent behavior issues and sometimes their parents seem less concerned and involved. Of course this is not always the case, but a trend that I have observed as well. This seems to go along with what you mentioned about the parents in your district with feeling the need to be able to contact their kid at any time. Just like your experience, my high school experience was very similar: parents had to contact the office and the students were called down if they needed to be contacted. I’m really surprised that parents feel the need to allow their students to have their phones at all times today.
It was very interesting to read your mom’s perspective of preschool education. One of my degrees is in Child Development and that allowed me to spend a lot of time at the Child Development Laboratories at MSU. One of the campuses was the Haslett location and there was a diverse group of students: Head Start and Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) both of which are for families of lower socio-economic statues, tuition-based, and special education. I completely agree that social interactions and free play are the most important parts of preschool, but that an exposure to academics is very important also, especially for students who receive less support at home. Today’s standards are not, in my opinion, fully developmentally appropriate. I think this is a very tricky balance, something that I honestly have an internal struggle with often. I can see a huge difference both, socially and academically, in the students that come into Kindergarten with a preschool experience, compared to those who do not.
I agree with your view on AP and other advanced classes for students. Similar to the increasing academic rigor in primary grades, I would think that an overload in secondary students’ course load would take away from their social development and free time. I also think that this could also take away from helping students build a love for learning. If they are so worried about “getting assignments done,” they probably aren’t able to take the time to truly think about and appreciate the learning they are engaging. I’ve been learning more about Ron Ritchhart’s Culture of Thinking. http://www.ronritchhart.com/COT_Resources.html CoT focuses on teaching students to appreciate the thinking process, apposed to the finished product or assignment. Although my experience with this is limited, from what I have seen, it truly makes a difference in the mind-set that students have toward learning and thinking.
Hi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your insightful reflection. I, too, am a Spanish teacher and was able to relate with many of the issues you addressed here. Like you, I find it necessary to teach or re-teach my incoming freshmen how to study. When students are provided study tips that can be applied across the curriculum, they are able to more successfully navigate the demands of their high school coursework. However, in some cases students are enrolled in classes that are simply above their ability level. In my district, for example, it is not uncommon to see freshmen taking multiple Honors and AP classes in their first semester of high school. As you noted, even if it appears that a student is not ready for a higher level course, the wishes of parents or counselors can override a teacher’s recommendation. These parental wishes, of course, are a result of wanting the best for their students’ academic careers, but too often misplacement sets their students up for failure. I have long suggested placement tests for students before scheduling for the next year’s Spanish class. I understand that testing anxiety could hinder a students’ performance and also lead to their misplacement, but the idea is trying to observe the needs of the student and enroll them accordingly. Perhaps in language classes a performance-based assessment could give teacher’s a good idea of students’ skill levels? Does your district provide ant sort of placement testing?
Posting daily objectives is a requirement for teachers in my building as well. These are similar to the “I can…” statements you mentioned. For the most part, explicitly stating the objective for students helps them better understand the purpose of a lesson. However, there have been days where a lesson is taken in a different direction, in response to the needs of my students, and the posted objective is not met until a different class period. Even if that happens, the students are given something concrete to strive for when the objectives are made visible. I am not familiar with the SEL program you mentioned, but it sounds like it would be beneficial to include some social and emotional objectives in my lessons this coming school year. Maybe these could help students’ gauge their behaviors both in the classroom and beyond.
Justifying curriculum was a theme in this week’s readings and something I dealt with this past school year. We purchased new textbooks, so our Spanish curriculum changed quite a bit, introducing new assessments and causing some overlap of grammar topics across levels. In level 2, writing and illustrating a legend was a new curricular requirement and one that was met with quite a bit of push back from students and parents alike. I was involved with conversations that began with, “How will illustrating my story help me learn Spanish?” I understood their concerns and did my best to demonstrate the benefits of the project, however I do recall wondering if my own parents would have questioned a teacher’s project. In my memory, they rarely questioned teacher’s instructional choices. I do know that the parents of my students do this with the best intentions--they want their children to be successful and to receive the best possible education.
On the topic of children being supervised, I have to agree that children today seem to have constant supervision. I worry, too, that this hinders them from learning to face and conquer challenges once they enter school. It seems as though the combination of less free play and increased parental supervision in the pre-school years has resulted in more dependent thinkers in the high school years.. I am curious if you have found the same to be true with your students?
Thanks again for the thoughtful post!
Stephanie
Hi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post and all the awesome conversation it developed. Great job!
It's funny. This notion of two ships passing in the night is rich for how the world seems to be going right now. In China and the EU, there is a huge push to get away from all the history and structure that have dogged their education systems (if you go to a French high school, it is super academic, and very lecture- and exam-driven--as across a lot of the EU, Finland aside). But in the US, we seem to want to throw away our progressive and child-centered history and get down to fundamentals, basics, and academics. So China wants to be like us and we want to be like them? But in which system would you want your child to grow up? Until maybe 15 years ago, almost everyone would have said the US, which takes a more balanced approached to education.
The things you are noting at the high school level are disturbing. The cell phones that can't be put down, even for a minute. The focus on the AP credential rather than the learning it represents. The parental worry about adjustment (I can't tell you how worked up East Lansing parents get every time their kid "transitions" to a new school--"transitions are bad for kids"--who knew?).
Anyway, I think about this all in terms of our cultures, too. Quick story. When we were living in France last summer, my kids would patiently wait in line to get on the tire swing. They wanted their turn (to go by themselves). But that's not how French playgrounds work. You just keep adding kids to the tireswing. It's inclusive, not individual. So finally the other kids just told them, "get on with us!"
I think our culture is so competitive and individualistic--not bad things in themselves--that helicopter parenting is the natural next step. I would like teachers to help parents worry less about their children. To help parents learn to trust their kids more (as the Japanese early childhood teachers do).
Great post. Look forward to reading more!
Kyle