Date: 16^th February 2011

Lecturer: Mr Kwok Boon Yong

Should parents or teachers be responsible for a child’s behaviour?

Accordingly to a newspaper article in The Times dated 6^th April 2009, an incident occurred between teachers and two parents over a teenage pregnancy case. When the mother’s fourteen-year-old daughter became pregnant with a sixteen-year-old boy, she placed the blame on school teachers for lack of education. Likewise the mother of the boy blamed the school for failure in educating the negative impacts of drugs to her son who is a regular cannabis user. This is an example of an increasing trend where parents place blames on teachers whenever their children exhibit poor behaviour. The matter has become a concern as teachers face increasingly aggressive parents and feels pressured at work. Such actions are incorrect and parents must be responsible for a child’s behaviour.

First, children tend to learn from their parents. Despite teachers playing a part in a child’s growth, they will not be as effective as their parents’ influence over the child. This is with reference to a publication by National Children’s Bureau and an article by Parenting Science; children would remain attached to their parents whom they recognised as caregivers and would develop a secure emotional relationship with them. They would remain dependent on this caregiver for their physical, mental and emotional growth. On the other hand, when they come across other people such as teachers, they would not trust them as well as their caregiver. Therefore, parents remain important as the most effective source to educate children with proper behaviour. Parents should understand the significance of their influence on a child’s behaviour and be responsible for it.

Second, teachers have their limitation in assuring proper behaviour. A typical class in schools are enrolled with a large group of students under the care of either one or two teacher. According to a study done by Ohio State University, one disadvantage of such classes is the issue of management problem. Due to the large number of students, it is extremely difficult for a teacher to continuously supervise and manage each student. This would lead to challenges of understanding individual problems and to ensure the inculcation of the right behaviour in each of them. As a result, teachers could not assure proper behaviour in all of their students. On the other hand, parents in comparison with teachers would face a smaller group of only their children to manage. Their involvement would ensure that their child is subjected to a more effective guidance which would lead to better behaviour in their children. Parents should understand the difficulties faced by teachers and be responsible for children’s behaviour.

Third, teachers’ roles are different from parents. According to Britannica Encyclopaedia, The main role of teachers is to assist a student’s learning process by bestowing knowledge onto them and set up situations where students can effectively learn. On the other hand, according to Blackwell Encyclopaedias of Social Work, parenting is the process of raising a child through the process of encouraging and maintaining the physical, emotional, social and mental development till their adulthood. With reference to the above two definitions on teachers’ and parenting roles, although it is the responsibility of a teacher to inculcate proper behaviour, the actions of the child however remains under the guidance and responsibility of parents. As long as a child exhibit bad behaviour, parents have to accept their fault as they have failed to prevent their child’s actions. Parents should understand their roles as parents and be responsible for children’s behaviour.

According to Singapore Club forum, majority of the parents viewed teachers responsible for their child’s behaviour as the teachers were paid by them. However this is an incorrect view as in schools, even a paid teacher would only give temporary guidance to a child. Once a child leaves school and in absence of their teacher, they will need their parents to provide guidance throughout the remaining part of the day. This is further supported by a book on child health nursing which states that children’s behaviour needs constant emotional support from parents and surrounding people such as teachers.

In conclusion, parents must be responsible for their child’s behaviour due to three reasons and one counterargument. First of all, their influence is effective over their children who tend to learn from them. Second of all, they should understand a teacher’s limitations and know that it is more effective to guide their children themselves. Third of all, they need to understand their parenting roles which are different from the roles of a teacher. Despite teachers being paid, parental guidance is no exception during the absence of teachers as children requires constant emotional support. Our teachers have undertaken enough responsibilities in educating our children; it is important that parents decide now and be rightfully responsible for their child’s behaviour before their unreasonable actions on teachers affects the quality of education.

References

Chism and Nancy, V., 1989. Large Enrollment Classes: Necessary Evil or Not Necessarily Evil? Notes on Teaching, No. 5. Occasional Paper. United States: Ohio States University.

Davies, M., 2000. The Blackwell encyclopaedia of social work. 1^st ed. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Dewar, G., 2008. Is your child securely attached? [online]. United States: Parenting Science. Available from: http://www.parentingscience.com/strange-situation.html [Accessed 16^th February 2011].

Frean, A., 2009. Parents ‘blame teachers’ for children’s bad behaviour. The Times, 6 Apr.

National Children’s Bureau, 2009. Healthy Care Briefings - Secure attachment promotes health and well-being [online]. Available from: http://issuu.com/philayres/docs/attachment/1 [Accessed 16^th February 2011].

Britannica Encyclopaedia, 2011. Teaching [online]. Available from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/585183/teaching/39100/Functions-and-roles-of-teachers [Accessed 16^th February 2011].

Pillitteri, A., 2009. Maternal & child health nursing: care of the childbearing & childrearing family [online]. United States: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Available from: http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=apeLf0mPx1QC&pg=PA785&lpg=PA785&dq=a+child+needs+guidance+at+home+too&source=bl&ots=V4lnENPtw1&sig=OihtgbuuLR076X6GUD-0CF0Q1w8&hl=en&ei=XCxcTYOJMcrJcZzJ3YwL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=a%20child%20needs%20guidance%20at%20home%20too&f=false [Accessed 16^th February 2011].

SG Club, 2011. Should MOE impose harsher punishments on secondary school students? [online]. Available from: http://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/should_moe_impose_330414.html [Accessed 16^th February 2011].