With a Mumu here and a Mumu there: How Modern Parenting is Ruining Education

1. Lack of participation. Do you know why a lot of kids are dumber than usual? (Sorry, kids.) Because their parents never speak to them. Parents are engaging less and less with their children. And we can blame the economy and how much people have to work these days, but also, very busy executives with families are making time to cheat on their spouses. So really, if you wanted to, you would. Parents are making time to “show up online”, know the latest gossip, troll people, and argue about sexism, racism, wokism every single day. Parents who spend most of their day in church and not enough time talking to their kids are also guilty, because I think parenting is a very important job God gives to people, and I believe your card is going to decline at heaven’s gates. 

I think if some parents took the time to have at least one conversation with their children everyday, they’d think to themselves “wow that’s a dumb kid”, then they’d put in the effort needed to make the child less dumb, and the world would be a better place.

Kids are underdeveloped because they are neglected. Parenting is a verb; it happens everyday, and it’s not providing food and clothing; it’s literally shaping their lives through your words and actions.

2. Perception over substance. There’s something worse than parents not being involved; it’s parents who are involved in their kids' lives, not to raise them to be upstanding members of society, but to make sure people don’t think they have kids who are “behind”.

And so they utter absurdities like “Just promote him to the next class or do you want people to think my son is not smart?”

And they ensure that their children pass exams by situating them next to the smart kid, teaching them how to commit examination malpractice also known as “helping yourself”, or they go straight to good old bribery and corruption. I know a mom who did all three. That’s serious commitment to success; it’s also madness.

What I always wonder about parents like this is how they think these things affect the child’s future. Or maybe they don’t think. That’s more likely.

3. Poor priorities. I once met a parent whose criteria for good schools was how fun their events are. She said “I like this my daughter’s school because all their parties are a hit.” By parties, she was referring to inter-house sports events which have become more about which school has the most colorful event than which school has more competitive sports programs and cultural day events which have become more about fashionable outfits than about culture. The kids have no idea what the history of their culture is, but hey did you see those outfits? Children with athletic prowess are not being trained to explore a career in athletics but hey blue house released doves painted blue when it was their turn to march poorly across the field, and the video has gone viral. OMG guys. #obsessed 

I could also talk about the idea that none of it matters and so kids should just be allowed to, well, be. I personally refer to it as even though-upon still, but you don’t have to. “Is Janet the first child to fail maths? Maths is hard.” One would think that Janet failing math would mean that Janet needs to spend more time trying to understand math, but one would be wrong. What it actually means, apparently, is that Janet is fine and has nothing to worry about because several other kids aside from Janet fail math everyday, most probably including Janet’s father. Imagine if Louis Pasteur had been told “wine keeps going bad” and he said “well, wine’s been going bad for years, just make more wine.” We wouldn’t have pasteurisation. Then again, Janet’s father cannot imagine that. Janet’s father did not pay attention in health education class because other kids were also not paying attention and that makes it ok.

The school proprietors are not the reason we have a pandemic of underdeveloped kids, parents are. The greed of school owners doesn’t help, but it’s parents pressuring schools to promote all kids to the next grade, even when they can’t write their names. It’s parents moving their kids to another school because this school’s party is just not hot enough, forget the fact that the students are competing in international school competitions and doing well. Who wants that?

Schools continue to decline in quality because schools are also businesses and businesses follow customer feedback. If parents wanted good schools, schools would be good. Through neglect and misprioritization, parents raise underdeveloped kids who grow up to be parents and raise even worse kids. So if you’ve ever used any of those phrases exemplified above and you find yourself wondering why schools are not as good as they used to be, go to the mirror and raise your hand. It’s you, love.