Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Teacher and Parent Empowerment

I came across this article on improving school performance through teacher empowerment.

I posted this comment to the article:


I’m impressed. I’m also not surprised. General principles of organizational theory tell us that people will function best when authority is vested at the lowest possible levels. Teachers who are free to use their judgment do better than those who are following outside dictates that supersede what they think. The principle is identical to what works in the home. I did not see the word homework, at all, in this article. We need to recognize that homework, while not necessarily bad in and of itself, is destructive when the parent lacks the authority to modify or waive the assignments. We should speak up strongly in support of teachers and against the current movement to put them under the gun. We should similarly speak up strongly against homework policies that diminish the authority of parents in their homes.


Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

Visit the website
Read book reviews of The Homework Trap
What is The Homework Trap?
A Roadmap to Success
504 plans



2 comments:

jjdaydream said...

What is your opinion of how to manage parents who are absent or uninvolved. A lot of my kids have working parents and/or disinterested parents. Who takes hold of the autonomy then?

Ken said...

Good question. I'll address it in a coming blogpost.