Back to School: Teaching Students About the Value of Education

It does seem that there is more and more focus on schools raising kids, as well as educating them.

There also seems to be a growing disconnect between teachers and parents in some communities where the latter also has little respect for the former.

Not totally sure as to why that is.

Ha! Try going back to a Primary School left behind 42 years ago, and see the difference now. Even nostalgia isn't what it used to be....

There was a program when I was in school when high school seniors would have breakfast at their elementary (primary) school.

I hadn't stepped foot in the building since I left, and I was amazed. Not only was it smaller and more crowded in appearance, but some of the magic was long gone.

One of my classmates and I used to ride these toys when we were in kindergarten (a blue train and a red biplane) and chase each other around the room. We found the room and the toys. I couldn't believe how small they were.

And that is really the shock about going back and why it ruins nostalgia. You have to accept how small of world you really lived in when you were younger because of everything you didn't know (and in the case of teens, even though you thought you knew).

I suggest leaving high school and never going back. It is too hard to blend in again. I have went back a handful of times and being reminded of how your good friends in high school no longer are good friends. It is hard to see how people change.

I never had breakfast with my elementary teachers, but I do remember them with a lot of respect... After all, they had to deal with me at peak energy

Maybe that is why it happens then, to get back on point.

Teachers were the smartest, most respected people I knew when I was a little kid. They, like the buildings they work in, loss some of the glitz and glamor as I grew older and realized that they were human, too.

The more they were like me, the less perfect they were.

And to use your analogy, Sharkles, I bet in HS, many of them were "your height".

Teachers definitely do have "glitz and glamor" to kids. What changed that for me was working many hours at a grocery store. In doing so I saw a lot of my teachers - former and current. Suddenly, teachers became real people in my eyes. They had families, ate the same food, and did the same kinds of things that everyone else I knew did.

It was realizing that they were "my height" changed my attitude for the better. Instead of being untouchable, superhuman beings, they were something that I could become if I wanted to (at the time I thought I wanted to be a HS teacher).

Elementary school teachers still held the magic for me, even when I saw them years later. I had too many happy memories as a kid to let them be ruined. Besides, when I talked to them, I knew that they still saw me as a little girl. Knowing that let me keep the illusion alive.

However, I realize that seeing people as "human" will not necessarily make everyone have more respect towards school and educators. I think it could go either way - kids can either appreciate people more for being "human", or they might think of it as another reason to disrespect authority.

I have several frineds who own businesses from septic tanks cleaner, roofers, mechanics to lawyers, doctors, accountants, electricial contractors.

When my kids were young I wanted them to get a feel for all kinds of work the nastiest to the cleanest.

So I ask my friends to take my kids at different times and give them a job for a week or two in the summer. The oldest hated cleaning in the operating room but loved laying out materials and double checking the materials in planning the next days work on a construction job.

Youngest hates pumping septic tanks but the easy and fast money they make interested him but he loves rebuilding engines.

Giving my kids exposure to a lot of different jobs when they are young under careful supervision works great for me. I t got their attention to what they could end up doing if they do not apply themselves.

I think that that was a wonderful idea. I know that hands-on approaches to teaching families what they don't want to end up doing can be the most effective way to light a fire under their bums in education. I never had to get that lesson that way though.

My father always told me how smart I was and how I am going to do better than him. We always talked about me inventing stupid inventions and being a sports star. He taught me that things that seem unattainable become within reach as long as I continue to educate myself. This taught me to have an undying thirst for learning that I can't seem to quench. I found that my father pushing me to do better than himself gave me the drive to succeed and the value of education.

I agree, it was a great idea! I had the fortune to work with my Dad for 5 years in the grocery business. While I knew it wasn't going to be something that I was going to be in for the long-haul, all the jobs I did there taught me important lessons about work ethic and people.

Like Jaxy, my parents told me that I could do whatever I wanted to be. They stuck by me when I wanted to be a choregrapher, a teacher, an award-winning novelist, an editor, and college professor. When I decided that I really wanted to write for a living, they encouraged me to take-on internships. At 20-something I am still working towards some of my dreams, but I am thankful that my parents taught me that if I work towards something with enough determination then I can attain it.

I'm always glad to hear that other parents are as enouraging as mine were/are. In threads like this - where values come into question - it makes me sad to realize that not everyone has a support system that goes out of their way to teach their children valuable lessons about ethics, working, and education.

Family structure has already changed - and that is likely part (most?) of the problem. Education has changed too - with more emphasis on "self esteem" and less on "self improvement". However, teachers at least receive training in how to be an effective teacher (they may not all assimilate it, but that's another matter). Parents become such without the benefit of much in the way of preparation. Used to be, emulation of one's own upbringing was sufficient for most purposes. But our culture has moved away from the extended family model of decades past, into a model where not only are there not generations raising the young, there are often only two, or worse yet one, overworked, underappreciated, young adult(s) making do as best they can.

I completely agree with you, but does the family structure change have a direct effect on what happens in schools? I tend to agree that while the families are changing, it is impacting the education of the young adults.

It is really hard for just one or two people to instill the values necessary for a self-fulfilling life. With an extended family, it seems to help a little with teaching kids values of not just respect, but education as well. In extended families, it seems that the parents are very concerned with having their student be better off than they were and they instill the value of education. But there are the parents who don't care if their daughter or son do better than them or not, and those are the parents that need to learn how to raise the self-esteem on their own child, it is not the teachers problem.

"...does the family structure change have a direct effect on what happens in schools..."

I think it does. If the kids don't get a grounding at home from the family, the school system becomes less relevant to the kids, and their education suffers. I had learned to read, write, and do some math before the age of five, so Kindergarten was a breeze (except for episodes of boredom brought on by "see Spot, see Spot run") for me. And I kept on staying ahead of the curve. I had a thirst for learning that is not quenched to this day. I consider myself a lifelong "student". I pity those who do not have the background to instill and encourage this. And while I was the true "baby of the family" (the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family), I was fortunate enough to know all four of my Grandparents. Everyone I was related to, even my cousins, expected the young (especially me, the youngest) to learn something!

There have been many changes in the past 30 years which have reduced the sense of worth of teenagers.

When I was at school, it was normal for kids of 12 to do a paper round, or help delivering milk before going to school - that was stopped by government legislation which was further extended to all under 16s to the stage that virtually no employers will allow U16s to work, even for a few hours at the weekend.

Part-time jobs give employers more flexibility, but at the expense of not giving full-time work to those who will not go to university - hence the increasing numbers of families feeling that work is not worth while (especially here in the UK where the Welfare State ensures a minimum standard - often above the minimum wage equivalent).

We always hear of the worst from schools and youths, but not nearly so much of the better - and more numerous - events.

In Edinburgh, there are schools in deprived areas where they teach to the minimum standard, and the smarter kids are left to vegetate/find other ways to amuse themselves while the teachers concentrate on bringing the less able/willing pupils to the minimum standard. One of my children was seen as a "good average" at one school, but when moved to the other side of the city was far behind the bottom of the class. He caught up quickly, and has now graduated from Uni.

In my days at school, pupils walked as not all parents had cars, and usually only one parent worked full-time. Now, most families with two parents are either holding down 2full-time jobs, or none... I am the only breadwinner in our family, and it is not easy to make ends meet with 3 children stil at home.

How much of the conversation which goes on in class is due to the pupils not meeting their friends until they arrive at the school gate, where we used to walk to school together?

Pretty much, this is really true. I honestly think that most kids in highschool wouldn't dissagree, they just wouldn't really care. =]

students really don't care.