Who's to blame for a child's poor performance in school?

I read an article about an elementary school in Atlanta where the faculty had been erasing incorrect answers on a state standardization test, and replacing them with the correct answers. It appears the reason they’d been doing this was not in the best interest of the children, but because bonuses, and sometimes their very jobs, were attached to the success or failure of the student populations of the school as a whole.

That speaks to the criminal element, but a deeper issue remains. Who really should be responsible for how a child does in school?

Of course the child, themselves, hold some responsibility, but does society play the biggest role? Where some kids (because of racial demographic or economic standing) are expected to do poorly, and are teased by peers when they do perform well? Or, do the schools need to do more to make sure the student has everything they need to be taught in a safe and nurturing environment? Or, do the parents bear the brunt of the responsibility – since they can set the tone at home for the importance of education on their children?

My personal belief is that, in order, parents, society, and schools share the responsibility – but overwhelmingly, the lion’s share of the responsibility is with the parents. What do the rest of you all think?

The parents and kids. Yeah, a lot of schools are shitty....but even the shittiest will have SOME good students.

Yeah, what he said.

Parents have the most responsibility, then teachers.

I don't think kids are naturally motivated to do well. They have to be taught to set goals and work hard. In early elementary, I did very poorly because my parents did not get into my school stuff much at all. It wasn't until I got to a smaller school when I realized on my own that I had to do better and try harder.

Each situation is different. Sometimes the kid is at fault, often times the parents, and sometimes the school/teachers are at fault.

I tend to agree with Forgiveness. I don't think the blame can be pushed at one cause. Sometimes it's a home life, sometimes it's other problems in school (if not the teachers), and some of the students have to take the blame. How do you spark incentive in a kid who rejects every effort?

It takes a village to raise a child so....while the brunt of it needs to fall on the parents, if I send my child to "school" then he/she needs to understand that he/she better be learning. And if someone's job title is "teacher" then that heffa better be teaching up to standards--and the parents need to check up on that periodically. Fuck that "I'm too busy working to go up there" bs. I feel that's where so much goes wrong--parents not even checking in to see if things can be running a bit smoother.

Most of the time the responsibility is pretty evenly split.

Impact wrote:Most of the time the responsibility is pretty evenly split.

A child needs encouragement & guidance from the parents. A teacher has to possess the skills to teach & the understanding that children are individuals. Some of them fly on their own while others need a little push. It's impossible to make a child who doesn't want to learn do well. It's a group effort.

Depends on the situation and the age of the children--the older they are, the more they should be responsible for policing themselves to do a good job in school. Younger kids need more parental involvement, though that doesn't mean the older ones don't need it at all--just that until you figure out for yourself how to conduct oneself in school, Mom and Dad need to be your advocate.

That also takes into account maturity level, too--you also have to be focused enough to want to be successful in school.

So I guess it's mostly a group effort where everyone has to do their job in whatever role they have. Sometimes you get a crappy teacher, sometimes you get an unmotivated student, and sometimes you get parents who use the schools as babysitting service--everything factors in.