The Teacher Perspective

It seems as though today's children are out of control in a whole new way. Police officers monitor school hallways, juvenile detention centers are double booked, and some districts have deemed children's attitudes such that sex education is necessary at a Kindergarten level. Those things for which society once held parents responsible, such as pack lunches and basic hygiene, are now increasingly becoming the responsibility of the schools.

The history of education is filled with controversy and disagreements on what is the best method for teaching. Traditional teachers focus on academics and expect their students to arrive in class ready to be obedient and learn. However, teaching methods began to change during the 1950s. In an article on 1950s curriculum, Cengage states, "The humanities and life skills became the new focus of educators. Home-economics classes and government classes attained record enrollments as citizenship and managing the home and family became high priorities" (Cengage, 1994). During the 1950s and 1960s, educational theorists produced new data and new strategies, and President Kennedy's changes led to the creation of Head Start and more federal control over curriculum. These new curriculum programs began filling the gaps where parents failed.

Unfortunately, things have continued to worsen in the children's attitudes over time. In a Gallop poll of parents in the 1970s, on public attitudes toward education,

...only 22 percent [of parents] said they would want their child to take up teaching, citing "scarce jobs" and "dangerous situations with kids running wild," as reasons. Problems in the system were numerous, and they named them (listed here in order of importance): discipline, integration, finance, teachers, facilities, and curriculum. Parents were, how-ever [sic], willing to shoulder some of the blame for students' poor performances; 61 percent of them claimed that children's home life was the primary reason for educational problems, whereas only 14 percent of the parents said it was the child's own fault.

Although these problems still plague education today, curriculum has now left behind the home economics and government classes in exchange for character development skills and personal care health. Barta and Winn state, "Research (Alejandro - Wright, 1885, Baratz A Baratz, 1970, Katz, 1982) shows that children as young as two years of age begin to develop discriminatory perceptions of bias and prejudice which, if unchallenged, may later develop into overtly racist or other discriminatory behaviors." Although they do appeal to parents to help solve the problem, they focus on those parents doing so by helping teachers in the classroom. "Anti-bias curriculum in classrooms educates children to diffuse the bias which precedes prejudice and discrimination... In order to create an anti-bias classroom environment support of the parents is needed" (Barta, Winn, 1996). We know that prior to beginning school children learn their attitudes by observing and imitating their parents. Why then do the teachers shoulder the responsibility for correcting the parents' attitudes in their children? In a US Department of Education study, 25% of public school teachers moving to a new job cited student behavior as their main motivation for moving. Teachers are increasingly being placed in a position of training young children in extremely basic qualities that parents have not followed through on at home.

Teachers are also finding themselves responsible for basic hygiene needs previously accomplished at home.

Massachusetts is the first state to add toothbrush time to the color-nap-snack-and-play routine of preschools, requiring that all children who eat a meal at day care, or attend for more than four hours, brush their teeth during class and be educated about oral health. (NY Times, 2010).

In the accompanying song sung by the children, it is clearly assumed that children do not typically brush their teeth more than once at home. This new policy has created controversy from parents regarding teachers handling toothbrushes, in special needs areas where it is dangerous to be near a student's mouth, and in other safety concerns (for example, students are required to swallow toothpaste). These kinds of situations may be growing, as the NY State Oral Health Plan from 2005 recommends "School-based Dental Health Centers", in which children will receive dental care in the school setting.

Medical services in the school setting have also changed over the decades; in the 1980s children received a vision and hearing screening, a scoliosis screening, and the occasional lice check whenever there was an outbreak. Today, emphasized dramatically by the H1N1 outbreak, schools administer immunizations as well as providing a number of other medical services to students. In previous decades it has been understood that medical and dental care was a primary responsibility of parenting. Now the government, through the schools, has accepted this responsibility as their own.

The lack of social responsibility in the home setting has changed what it means to be a teacher in today's early childhood classrooms. Although the best education comes by focusing on each child's developmental needs in every area, including social, emotional, and physical health, it should be assumed that there is a limit on the teacher's responsibilities in these areas. Teachers are not meant to be their students' parents; however, parents are definitely meant to be their child's first teachers. The sooner we can reverse the current trends, placing home responsibilities back in the home, and allowing teachers to return to teaching, the sooner our children will receive all of the skills that they need to become socially responsible adults.

Written by Jess Tryon