The role of Parents in Education
Parents have a much different role in public education in France than in the US. As a parent in France, it is clear that education is considered to be the "chase gardé", the exclusive competence of the French educational system. The parents' role is primarily to prepare their children for studious obediency in class. Parents are not welcome into the sphere of school pedagogy, except as a palliative measure for activities like maintaining the school library or the kermesse. For parents who want to implicate themselves more, they can offer to become "représentants de parents d'élèves" where they will expected to pa buffer between teachers and the other parents or to resolve peripheral problems such as the kermesse. In no case would they be invited to participate in fundamental pedagogical decisions such as the "projet d'école", the local school program. Should they be?In the US, parents are a part of this process, some teachers may say, too much so. Not only do parents want to get "their money's worth" since local taxes paid by parents finance in part local schools, but they also feel that they should have a say in the content of the school programs. Parents can be influential in determining program content like whether "intelligent design" another version of creationism be included in biology classes with equal stature to evolution. But they can also be influential in changing the school system, for instance, in accommodating handicapped children in school. In this sense, the French Educational system is a mastodon.
posted by Brett @ 4:51 PM
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