Who Is Responsible For Teaching Values To Our Children?

Who should ultimately be responsible for teaching values to our children? Rick Ackerly, Ed.M. of ParentInvolvementMatters tackles the subject matter with a rather indignant article, which was itself spurred on by an article on the Huffington Post written by Tim Elmore telling teachers that their jobs have become really more important as they have to be responsible for the values education of our children.

Parents want kids taught values in school

The Huffington article was based on a recent poll conducted by The Harvard Graduate School of showing that 70 percent of public school parents want schools to teach “strict standards of right and wrong,” with another 85 percent wanting their kids to be taught values in school.

Values education part of teacher-student relationship

Much of Ackerly’s issues against the article are centered on its suggestions that made it sound like teachers haven’t really been helping in the values education of our children. Ackerly says teaching them responsibility and respect is already, and has always been,  a primary component of the process of building a relationship with students. According to Ackerly, good teachers start off the school year by going over the behavior expected of anyone in the class. This, according to Ackerly, is how educators teach responsibility and respect. The values education of our children doesn’t have to be an “add-on” or a special course or program in any school.

Parents are ultimate role models

Frankly, I don’t really get why this is even a question. As far as I’m concerned, we parents are ultimate role models, and we want our children to take on all the values that are important to US, not just the ones that are important to whatever TEACHER (as good as he or she may be). As parents we need to support what is happening at school, but in my opinion the buck stops with parents. If there’s anyone that should teach responsibility and respect to our kids first, it should be us parents. While I’d be happy if teachers help teach responsibility and respect to our kids, I’d be mortified to leave the values education of our children to school. That is MY role (among others) and the school teacher supports this function while my child is at school. So, well said Mr. Ackerly, and add to that the full support of parents!

Read the full article here.

Do you agree? Who are the main people responsible for teaching our children? Us parents or our children’s teachers at school?  (Homeschoolers, you probably have the best answer!)

Tags: education, parenting

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