| Amazing that so many private and parochial schools work well with NO consultants.Ditto that!
Our typical son graduated from his Jesuit high school in June….a brilliant school with no consultants.
Disagree, though, that public schools have become parents, medical facilities, etc. That is not the case in my own very well funded school district ($29k per pupil).
In my experience, private & parochial schools are more likely to adopt a parental role vis a vis students than public schools. Our son’s Jesuit school has a strongly ‘parental’ culture, which I think can be fairly described as in loco parentis.
In contrast, our public high school frankly rejects any form of in loco parentisresponsibility for students. Students are “young adults” who are expected to “learn from their mistakes.” This is the formal, directly stated philosophy.
If a student does not learn from his or her mistakes, that is sad, but it is not the school’s responsibility.
btw, one of the most useful books I’ve read re: education and parenting is Laurence Steinberg’s Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do.
Steinberg describes 4 modes of parenting (based in research going back to the 60s and 70s):
-authoritarian
-authoritative
-permissive
-disengaged
“Authoritative” parenting is by far the most effective, and the word “authoritative” applies to the culture of our son’s Jesuit high school.
“High joy/high discipline”: that’s the atmosphere inside the school.
To some degree, our high school’s ‘parenting style’ corresponds to permissive parenting. Permissive parents, like administrators here, believe that children should learn from their mistakes. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The parental role of public schools has become diminished. It is less about a deterioration within the school system, and a perception of what the purpose of school is. More and more parents and children believe that school is a service provider, they are the customer, and “the customer is always right”. The students are sent by parents to go and get some of that education stuff. When there are problems with behavior, attendance, achievement…they often become an issue of injustice perpetrated upon the student, intrusion upon the private decisions and values of the family. The increasing lack of shared values and expectations between schools and families is one that correlates with the wealth gap and the achievement gap (between students from lower income and higher income families). Those conditions work together in a cycle of deterioration of values-behavior-achievement, and it then becomes generational. Public schools are often left knowing that “parenting” difficult students will be challenged by their real parents, or not followed through on by the families at home. With more and more victims of “the gap cycle” showing up in classrooms, and with increasing behaviors at younger and younger grades, your average public school can’t parent enough to keep up with a deteriorating economy and society. This is a truth “reformers” would like to avoid. It reveals a self-centered market morality that needs reform first.
In private and parochial schools, it is likely a different situation. The parents have the resources-whether it be economic, time, or sheer force of will, to seek out and follow through on finding a school choice that mirrors pro-social parental type values. My children all go to the public school I teach in. If I could “reform” off our back, I think some really good things could happen here, and I want my kids here to help make it happen. If you are a parent willing to help your kids succeed, and support your public school in making it happen, you should join me.
I personally find this stereotypical portrait of public schools and teachers very offensive. If I can help a kid, I will, no ifs, ands or buts. That, in fact, is my job.
While some may have the luxury of fewer students with whom to devote their time, It’s outrageous to assume private school teachers care more than we do.
Arthur,
I have to disagree with you on the “offensive” part. I think it is realistic.
I think the key word here is “CAN”. Unfortunately, there’s far too much that schools and teachers CAN’T do, either because of lack of training, lack of resources, or fear of legal reprisals. For example, Student clearly has mental health issues-you talk to student and find out that Student’s parents are going through a very ugly divorce with Student caught in the middle. You refer Student to counselor, but counselor is only in the building one half-day a week and is completely booked for the next month.
You allow Student to come and talk to you on a regular basis-it’s great that you can provide a listening ear! However, you’re not a trained counselor, and even if you were, you’re not allowed to provide counselling services. You contact the parents and are told in no uncertain terms that it’s none of your business and if you don’t stay out of it, they will contact their lawyers. So, keep pushing for the help the kid needs and risk making things worse, or back down so at least the student doesn’t lose you?
In a public school setting, the teacher’s hands are tied. A private school has MUCH more flexibility, and thus more opportunities to
help the student. By sending their child to a private school, parents are signing a contract that allows the school to take a more parental role. There’s no such contract between parents and public schools.
Apparently you are unaware of the history of parental law suits against public schools and federal, state, and district laws and regulations that spell out quite clearly what is and is not allowed.
Teachers do not make these rules and have no say in creating them, just as we do not hire ourselves nor control the curricula, materials we use, or much of anything anymore. We create as much of a family support system as we are allowed under very hard to navigate circumstances.
I can attest to you that THERE ARE SEVERAL CONSULTANTS that are aligned with private schools. I am one of many, and several schools want my talents for an hourly rate of $75.00 or more.
As long as the students are financially supported by their parents (taxpayer and private tuition included), their teachers should be compelled to abide by the in loco parentis standard (serve in place of the parent by reflecting the their ethical and moral values to the students). The major problem comes when students, who are still existing under the largess of their parents, succumb to the highly immoral environment of most institutions of higher learning and eventually become teachers. The end result becomes a vicious cycle of ever greater degradation of character, but apparently a cycle that was desired by Woodrow Wilson and, in recent years, actually achieved by him. It was Wilson who surmised that “…The use of the university is to make young men as unlike their fathers as possible.” As Teddy Roosevelt sadly predicted: “…Educate a child in mind and not in morals and you educate a menace to society.” Or as William James so succinctly stated, “A college education doesn’t make fools; it develops them.”