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A poll in the UK showed that 1 in 10 people think that schools should be held responsible for children’s behaviour. Teachers have been complaining that the children in their class are out of control. Around 40% of teachers have been assaulted by pupils and around 60% have been subject to verbal abuse. Moreover, teachers reported that many children come to school not having brushed their teeth or had breakfast or even learnt how to go to the toilet.
Alarmingly, of the number of people polled, 3% thought that it’s the school’s responsibility to potty train children and 2% thought that it should be the school’s responsibility to teach kids how to brush their teeth. Furthermore, around 6% thought that it was the school’s responsibility to ensure that children had breakfast.
Here’s the question. Whose children do the parents think they are? Do they think teachers are the parents and the school is their home? This is a legitimate question that should be asked by every school in every western country. It seems that an awful lot of parents think that once they’ve had children they are no longer responsible for them because they are busy working.
Teachers have reported troublesome children during school hours but has anyone ever considered how troublesome those very children might be after school hours when they spend time in playgrounds and other recreational facilities? I can assure you that their poor behaviour continues well after school hours, that includes both at home and at rec centres. That’s why many residents in apartment blocks complain about noisy children in their corridors.
These children are not all toddlers. Some are between 10 to 15 years old. They sit on the floor outside flats with their legs stretched out, blocking pathways or they play football or they ride their electric scooters up and down the corridors.
The question would be, who are the parents holding responsible for their children’s behaviour after school? Is it the staff of the recreational centres or a park’s playground attendants? Based on my observation, most parents of badly behaved children explain it away with phrases like, he’s just a kid, even if he’s 10 years old. Yes, he’s a kid but he also knows right from wrong.
I once witnessed an exchange between a mother and staff of a rec centre. She was complaining about how her 10 or 11 year old son was verbally and physically abused by a couple of boys. I heard her say, what kind of a centre were the staff running, as if the staff were responsible for that kind of behaviour. If a parent lets their child run free outside their home, they should be prepared for what I call playground playing in which kids fall, get pushed and sometimes get hurt. I know that in some establishments staff are too afraid to shout at children for misbehaving because the parents of said children complain to upper management that their child was yelled at. Then the staff member gets reprimanded and the badly behaved child gets off scot-free, only to do it again. Sometimes the management will call the parents down for a talk. But often talk back because they feel they’re being insulted by the staff. Again, they’ll excuse their behaviour as child’s play.
It also baffles me that I always see children going to staff of rec centres begging to refill their water bottles. Staff don’t always have water coolers so the kid can’t get water. These are not isolated incidences. They are frequent and sadly staff are often put in the uncomfortable position of having to tell the child to go home and get water.
Many parents appear to have relinquished their parental responsibilities to schools, school bus drivers and nannies who will not scold a badly behaved child in their charge for fear of the parent coming down on them.
Parents are wholly and solely responsible for teaching their child to go to the bathroom, brush their teeth and, above all, to provide breakfast for them. Having children is often a choice but being responsible for them is not.
