Blaming Parents 101

This is the kind of stuff that gets my lamb chops. And my goat.

Here is another article on The Gradebook titled Want kids to perform? Reward them

While I do not agree with this concept, I haven't got to the part that really puts my ovine in a bundle.

If one reads the articles (follow all of the links), you see names such as
1 - Sen. Elaine Alquist, the bill's sponsor

2 - Jeb Bush

3 - Patricia Levesque - "Bonuses for student performance have been tested for more than a decade, and results show this type of incentive works," reads the statement from Patricia Levesque, the foundation's executive director.

4 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

5- Roland G. Fryer, the Harvard economist who designed the student incentive program,

6 - Nationally, school districts have experimented with a range of approaches....

7 - Virginia Connelly, the principal of Junior High School 123, in the Soundview section of the Bronx.......


I do not see any "Parent" being mentioned.

I do not see any "Parent" sponsoring a bill.

I do not see any "Parent" asking the public school system to do this.

But I did see this comment on the Gradebook post:

Isn't it the PARENT'S job to be setting the example and rewarding their children for bringing home good grades (and punishing them for bad ones)? Parents have to take responsibility for their kids and stop expecting the state to raise them right.

Posted by: Frustrated | July 21, 2008 at 05:15 PM


This is what is frustrating to me. Blaming parents for something they didn't start.
However, once it is provided to them, when it is taken away they do complain then.

But parents didn't start it.

I wrote about this a long time ago here as anonomous. Here is the reprint:

"Connecting free school transportation with free school breakfast.

This got my attention: "Following school districts in Baltimore, New York City, Seattle and Tampa, Palm Beach County is embracing a healthy breakfast as a weapon against discipline problems, chronic visits to the nurse and a lack of focus in the classroom."
palmbeachpost.com August 13

I hear a lot of criticism about how parents are doing their "job' and I hear many complaints that the school system has to "do it all". Which came first, poor parenting or a system that instilled dependence? While the stated reasons for providing this free lunch are laudable, one must look at the big picture.

I can only imagine that in a few years this "free breakfast" program will be a financial burden on the system. But by then, two things will have happened. The first will be that this entitlement mentality will be entrenched in the public. The second will be that the etilogy of this program will be forgotten. The school personnel will blame the kids and the parents for not being responsble, and the parents will be angry because their lifestyles will have adapted to the system and the system is "abruptly" taking away something.

One more thought while I have the opportunity. In the Palm Beach Post article, there was this sentence: "Palm Beach County's program will be paid for with state and federal money. It might even be a money-making venture for the food service department, which operates as an independent corporation and does not draw from the district's general fund."

This statement leads me to believe that the motivation for the program was money, not the stated reasons of having more alert students. I could be wrong, oh me of little faith.
August 13, 2007 9:09 AM"