When I went to school my parents knew almost nothing about what was happening to me and by me during the school day. I was a decent student. Didn’t have to try too hard and quite frankly didn’t want to try to too hard. My Dad would sometimes comment that I rarely, if ever, even opened my backpack at home. In other words, I handled it on my own.
Today, as a father of 3, I get something like 4 to 6 messages via the “Remind” app on a daily basis. The teachers suggest that we check on the student’s google classroom or in their lab journal, etc. It seems as though the teachers are trying to shift responsibility away from the kids and onto the parents.
I’m lucky enough that if I wanted to be involved in their homework and schoolwork I can do so. But I don’t want to be involved and I don’t believe that should be expected of me. I’m not in the classroom on a daily basis, and I could only imagine the outrage and privacy concerns that would be involved if I tried to audit a classroom. I’m being asked to support the “black box” that is the classroom with zero knowledge of what goes on inside the classroom.
Let’s compare that to sports. My kids are on their own. Coaches don’t want to hear from parents. They want the kids to be responsible for themselves and to communicate directly with the coach if there is an issue. Only one coach has ever recapped practice, and while I appreciated it I don’t expect every coach to do that.
There’s no real big point to this post. I’m still thinking about how I feel about all this. Maybe the use of technology is for the better. I’m not convinced as of now.