Teaching: Whose Job is it Anyway?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

You can lead a child to knowledge, but you can’t make him think.

I’ve been thinking about the role of the school versus the role of parenting in the education of a child. For what it’s worth, I have a few *ahem* candid thoughts. The state’s job is not to educate your child; it is to make education accessible for your child. That’s the parents’ ultimate responsibility.

Other than cognitive ability, the two greatest factors contributing to a student’s academic success are the value her parents place on education and the amount of support she receives on schoolwork at home. That’s what I see in the lives of students. The reachable and teachable students are the ones whose parents are involved and supportive of education. Absent parents and entitled parents make it exponentially more difficult to reach a child. Still, my job is to do the maximum to make the content accessible to each student, no matter what situation they come from.