The utter insanity of blaming teachers only and letting parents and students off the hook.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

46. Totally agree...my wife is a teacher in an inner city school...

She's been teaching there for over 20 years. The teacher is an extension of the parent/authority figure in a child's life. If the parent doesn't establish positive expectations and continuously monitor the progress of the child from grade to grade, then the chance of success in learning is extremely difficult.

Most of my wife's students come from one parent families (14 out of 18 last year), usually female, and a lot of those are grandmothers. These are children born out of wedlock to teen age women (some as young as 12) with no parenting skills. The father abandons them in most cases and the kid is passed off to the grandmother many times. A typical parent/teacher night or open house attracts maybe 2 or 3 parents in her class.

A child born to a single parent family is at a huge disadvantage and if that parent is 12-14 yrs old and on drugs then a successful education for that child is virtually impossible.

Although this is based on anecdotal evidence form my wife's experience, I do believe it's a widespread problem especially in inner city schools. 14 out of 18 students in one class were from single parent families... that's a pretty high percentage. Only 2 or 3 parents at parent/teacher night... this is the norm at her school and it's the same year after year. Parental apathy is directly related to student performance and parental apathy is very much related to UNWANTED children. These teenage mothers do not want these babies and there is a big psychological effect of the child feeling abandoned - there's no connection between the parent and child. They can sense they're unwanted. This goes to the core of who a person is and how they see themselves. This is highly stressful and stress is a huge factor in learning disabilities.

Something needs to be done to prevent these teenage mothers from having babies at such a young age who eventually enter the school system and drag all the other students down with all the attention they demand with their personality disorders and learning disabilities. So much one-on-one time is spent on kids with major behavioral problems, and kids with way below average IQ’s that the "normal" kids who have the desire and ability to learn and achieve are neglected. There is no shortage of aids and tutors in her public school but they are all focused on the unwilling and unable... trying to bring their test scores up so the school is not classified as in "academic emergency". This is what's killing education in our schools.