How much responsibility lies with parents and teachers?

[Muppity]

Ditto with what everyone else has said.

How did you react - I would have been totally flumoxed and then wanted to tell her exactly what I thought.

The teacher is a trained professional but has probably about 30 kids in the class. She, on the other hand should be the EXPERT on her own children and I am guessing that she doesn't have 30 of them. How wonderful of the school to offer extra support - and seriously - if she has done it all before she obviously didn't learn anything because she couldn't identify the issue with her child.

Parents have a responsibility to do the very best that they can for each of their children and if that is spending 4 hours learning yourself how to help you child be the best that they can be how dare she complain about it. So many parents desperately want to be able to help their children and don't know how or where they can learn.

[Mum0809]

I think it is the job of both the school and the parents. The teachers have 20 to 30 kids to teach each day. Of course they need help from parents to get children to reach their full potential.

[Ellibam]

im a huge believer in my parenting is what teaches my children and that formal schooling just finishes those little bits off that i might not know....

Some kids start school/kindy not even knowing what letter their name starts with

OMG makon is just over 2.5 and knows m for makon and he picks it out to! so its not just a sentence for him!(we could be out driving and he will see a m and tell me!)

this is also why we are having a tough time deciding on which school to send our children to.

[Bathsheba]

I completely agree Ellibugs: "parenting is what teaches my children and that formal schooling just finishes those little bits off that i might not know...."

Well said and my thoughts exactly.

[tan32]

I have to say that i believe teaching is the responsibility of the parents, while it is to an extent a teachers, but you need to be involved in what your child is being taught and their performance at school. I learnt this the hard way. My DD is in yr 4 this year and since i have stopped working and can take the time to be more involved with her school work and speak to her teacher on a regular basis she has blossomed. The school have been great with her and have always spoken to us about any concerns, my DD struggled with learning the time so we have a childrens clock hanging on the wall in our dining room under our other clock. WE ask her at different times of the day what the time is, this has also rubbed off on our DS who is 4 as he is starting to tell us the time.

Its to easy for parents to blame the school, when all it takes is a bit of your time and attention to help teach your child.

[nic]

Lulu, I suggested, that it might be a good idea to attend the sessions as I had been told that a few things had changed within the last 12 months or so.
I don't know if she did go or not? I haven't seen her since.

I had a chat with DH about it and was telling him about the conversation. I was saying how I thought it was wrong that she was blaming the school/teacher etc, and then how i felt like maybe I was too judgemental of her, and then I began to wonder to DH if I/we "overparent" in a way? Are we too involved? It made me question mine and DH's parenting in a way. It's nice to come in here and read that I'm normal. Plus, like DH and you girls have said, if they've been through it already with #1, she should have been able to see some signs (you would think) with #2, or go to the teacher and have a chat. It's suppose it's not like it is something that just popped up one day.. SURPRISE!

Thanks for your input girls. Nice to read others thoughts

Nic

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Wow, I can't believe anyone thinks school teachs a child! Well, yes, but tbh school should be building on what's learnt at home - a teacher shouldn't have to teach everything unless it's a specialist subject, like at senior school. But a primary teacher should have parents 100% on board - everyone should help their children read (DS knows the letter his name starts with and gets excited when he sees it - 16m! It's not too early!), count, get on with other children, road safety... basic things. We have 50% of our 11 year olds (apparently) unable to read, write or count. That is not the fault of the school. At the very least parents should teach children how to listen and learn - with 30 kids, if you don't know that then you won't learn anything from school.

Teaching begins in the home.