Talkback: An educated guess

Interesting article, and commendable job by Joel Klein, but there are deeper issues than what I have read in the article.
We have Parents that don’t take an interest in their children’s education. They do not make sure that assignments get completed correctly, timely, and neatly with pride, because they are too busy with their own lives. To the contrary, they complain when the “darlings” have too much homework and projects. They don’t discipline their children when they do not complete their assignments.
We have teachers that are not allowed to tell a student that their work is unacceptable and wrong. They can only say that it is not as correct as it should be because they are not allowed to hurt the childs self esteem (bull). The world is not this kind, and a child has to learn this early on.
There are no consequences for incomplete or failing work, because a child is not allowed to be left back unless the Parents agree, ridiculous! In life you do your job right and timely, and the consequence is worse than left back, it’s fired.
The school system is turning out children that have no realistic concept of right and wrong, or timeliness and pride. No accountability or consequences. No drive or determination. Since they have never been made to have accountability, responsibility, or deal with real consequences they are not equipped from an education, or personal level to function in a competitive world. I do realize it’s not just the school system, but the Parents also.
I hear all the time “it’s different today”, but I disagree. WE have made “it” different. It should not be difficult or unrealistic for Parents, schools, teachers, and society to hold children accountable and responsible for their actions. I guess the difficulty is that this takes a bit more time, effort, and interest in the children.

I switched careers at age 57 from the corporate business world to teaching high school algebra. I can tell you that I am less concerned about the institution of education than I am about the institution of family. Parenting is not what it used to be. This is the main problem in my opinion.