Does your child’s school measure up?

How well do schools teach children to love learning? Not very well at all says a report that measures parent’s attitudes about school performance. In fact nearly 40% of the parents in the study said that they did not think their child’s school did this well at all. That is a lot of parents who don’t think that schools help children love learning, who might think that schools are more likely to stop children knowing the joy of learning.

Results from this study from the Canadian Council on Learning (2007) looked at parents’ perceptions of both elementary and secondary schools and found that many parents did not believe that schools measured up.

Schools scored best when it came to teaching the basics (the 3 R’s) , and preparing students for further education – over 60% of parents thought that schools did this well. Teaching computer skills got an even higher score from parents with nearly 70% happy with what schools were doing.

But when it comes to preparing students for work, teaching problem solving skills, or helping students become good citizens about 40% of parents thought that schools could do a better job.

These results are interesting but let’s not use them as a stick to beat schools with. Take another look. Parents agreed that schools were doing a good job teaching children basic skills, computer skills, and preparing children for further education. Isn’t that what they are supposed to do?

When it comes to teaching students to be good citizens, preparing students for work, and teaching problem solving skills the schools did not appear to be doing very well. But whose job is it to help children develop these skills? What are parents doing to help their children get ready for the world of work, helping them become good citizens and find ways of solving life’s problems?

Maybe it is a parent’s responsibility to help children develop these skills? Schools may not be perfect but they do a pretty good job of teaching children basic information. Parents need to step up to the plate and help their children learn the life skills they need.

So, let’s change the question. Let’s change ‘Does your child’s school measure up?’, to ‘How does the help you give your child measure up?’

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