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A new toy for control-freak parents? Uh-oh
Published: Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - 12:29am
The demon of all school-related anxiety has struck again, and this blow may very well be the worst one so far.
As Uni students, most of us have parents who care a great deal about our education. Unfortunately, this also means that many of us are possessed by our very own overbearing Mom ’n’ Dad machine, a pair of Power Parents who tirelessly ask you every two seconds if you have completed your assignments-du-jour yet.
This breed of parent exists at many other schools, doing just as much damage to and causing just as much anxiety within their students.
Unfortunately, for some students out there with such parental units, I’m sorry to say that a new toy has been created that will actually increase their parents' obsession with academic performance, successes, and — in particular — slip-ups.
Enter Edline, ParentConnect, Pinnacle Internet Viewer, and Powerschool. As reported recently in The New York Times (and discussed by Gargoyle assistant editor Gordon Ruan in another blog entry), these Web sites allow for parents to monitor immediate changes in their child’s academic performance.
Parent users check these sites frequently, some "only" daily and others several times in one day.
I can see why parent users have become so addicted to such sites, but, honestly, I think it has to be one of the most morally repulsive inventions ever.
These sites enforce the idea that grades are the most important thing. Is that right? Obviously that is a subjective matter, but it is my opinion that it is what a student learns, not what their grade is, that is the most important thing. This constant monitoring by students’ parents tells students that all that matters is that they get a good grade, and that that is what their parents care about the most.
Besides causing students to feel anxious or be working hard in school for the wrong reasons, it could influence students to cheat. Is this really what schools want to be doing? In an age where plagiarism and cheating are a constant worry of administrators, why would they want to create a new source of stress? I’m pretty sure it’s well recognized that stress is a leading influence in the decision of whether to cheat or not.
Thankfully Uni hasn’t employed such online services — and hopefully will not ever. And, in case the administration is starting to get any ideas, just consider the fact that stress is not something we need more of.
Comments
These programs are not to
These programs are not to blame. It's the overbearing parents' fault. I try in school because I want to. My parents don't ask what my grades are and they only see the final report card. This is my education and not theirs. Parents don't need to live their lives through their kids.
total parental involvement! oh joy
I like this entry and I think Sindha's revulsion is well-founded. I grew up during the blissful days of parental non-involvement, understanding (as Anon does above) that it was my education, not theirs. This was great for coursework---I never had to do badly in class just to punish my parents---but was especially helpful in the college application process, during which I got to write some really bizarre (oops "creative") essays which obviously had not suffered from oppressive adult oversight, thus possibly winning me "independence" points from admissions officers.
But ultimately these monitoring programs are a symptom of problems, not their cause.
And, speaking as a parent, the Number One main problem I see is that we parents are mostly fumbling in the dark as to how to raise our children in this society. All the low-skill, high-wage jobs have vanished---so naturally we push our kids to do well in school. Then what happens when the high-skill professional positions are exported? For many of us, making kids do even better in school is the inclination. And so we get this insane monitoring to make sure our kids do not slip up, even once, lest their entire lives be ruined.
The irony is that if you want your children to survive in changing times, the best thing to do is to let them learn independence and resourcefulness. I don't see how up-to-the-second academic monitoring achieves this. Maybe when my kids are Uni-aged I'll change my mind; for now, consider this another possible objection.
Not just yet.
The idea of subscribing to Edline or a similar service has come up a few times in conversations between the administration and the technology department. I even got a price quote from them at one time (and it was more reasonable than I expected). For the moment at least, though, none of us thinks it's a particularly good idea. The pressure it would put on students is one thing, as is the burden it would place on teachers to maintain their gradebooks on time and in just the right format to meet the requirements of the service. Like the students, our teachers are an independent lot and tend to like to do things their own way, on their own schedule. In short, you can breathe easier, since we have no plans to implement something like this anytime soon.
- GDS
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