2002_06_01_archive

Parents and Children Magazine Article, Anchorage

The following is an article I wrote for the Parents and Teachers

Magazine in Anchorage, prior to my 2002 election.

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PARENTS, CHILDREN, AND SCHOOLS

Children are a Gift from God entrusted to the care of parents for a

proper upbringing. Children don't belong to Washington DC, or Juneau,

or the local school district. Parents are responsible for educating

their children, and no one else. The school system, the principal, and

their teacher are merely agents of the parents. Sometimes the school

establishment gets things backward, and believes parents are

responsible to the school. That's not so. Schools are responsible to

parents. When parents need to resolve a situation about their child

with the school, the first step is to contact the teacher, followed by

the building principal, school superintendent, the elected school

board, and finally one of your elected local or state representatives.

The most important education a child will ever receive begins at home

at childbirth, continues through the growing years. As "empty nesters"

can tell you, a good parent continues to "educate" their children

forever. Obviously, some parents have better parenting skills than

others. Excepting criminal or dangerous activity, a parent is allowed

to make some mistakes and misjudgments - parents learn along with

their children. A good family learns together.

In a manner of speaking, every child is home schooled by parents. In

most cases, home schooling is augmented by regular attendance at a

public or private school. In some cases, children are home schooled

without formal school augmentation. The point is, parents are

responsible for their child's education, whatever the setting.

There is a limited amount of time in the school day, and an unlimited

amount to learn. There's no shortage of groups with a social agenda

that have a "felt need" to insert (or even force) their particular

social, cultural, behavioral, or political views into the curriculum.

Some of these agendas fail to be age appropriate. This doesn't happen

unless parents abdicate their responsibility and parental rights.

It's impossible for anyone to be totally neutral, on any subject. But

common sense tells us that, if a child learns basic reading (and later

learns to read critically), and learns the lessons of history, that

child will mature into a person who can make up their own mind on

controversial issues of the day. A well rounded education will include

music, the arts, science, sports, and the American civics that make us

a great nation.

The maxim "all men are created equal" applies to human dignity and the

Sacredness of Life. One goal of education is help a child to learn to

the maximum of their individual potential, whatever that God-given

potential is. Too many children, due to poverty or neglect, never

realize how wonderful their potential might be. That leads to

underachieving in school and life. It's true that each of us, young

and old alike, must learn how to "bloom where we are planted." A

teacher (or parent) who helps a child "bloom" has responded to the

highest calling of their vocation.

We live in a competitive society. America is founded on the principle

of equality of opportunity, not equality of results. A child who

doesn't learn how to compete - or isn't allowed to safely "fail" - is

ill prepared for life in the "real world." There is no such thing as

real failure, if a learning experience results. It's not how often one

fails that counts, but how often one can fail and still succeed.

A quality education certainly requires adequate funding, but money

alone doesn't guarantee quality schools. More important is adequate

parenting, and parent-school communication. Parents must never be

outside the educational loop. Above all, a school must be a safe place

to learn, with a classroom environment that promotes learning. If

there is one magic answer to insuring a quality education, it is

active participation of parents.

It's "Back to School Time" for students, and it's also "Back to School

Time" for parents. There's a wonderful group of dedicated and

hardworking teachers in our schools, and Alaska has the best. Teachers

have professional credentials, but parents possess their children's

birth credentials - and responsibility - for their children. If things

don't go "right" at school, the parent is responsible for the acts of

the school, as the school is their agent.