A Reddit user shared a post questioning whether some teachers have become less involved in students' learning and whether parents are as involved in their children's education as they should be. The post, shared in r/AskTeachers, had drawn 432 comments at the time of publication.
The user began by writing that a common theme on social media lately was that teaching had become increasingly difficult because parents were not adequately parenting their children. “Maybe my husband and I are the unicorns of parenting, but I just doubt it,” she wrote.
The woman wrote that whenever her child struggled academically or socially, she and her husband either held him accountable or tried to contact his teachers but received no response. She argued that teaching had been replaced by apps and that teachers had become less available. However, she also made it clear that not all teachers fit that description.
“Our child has had wonderful teachers that do not fit the above description, but it never fails when it's a class he's struggling in- the teacher is always unavailable. So I guess I'm just wondering whether it's really the parents creating these disrespectful kids who don't pay attention and simultaneously blame the school for everything? Or is it like many professions, where people/teachers are slowly burning out and consequently going on autopilot... Also impacting the kids, and unfortunately impacting the ones who actually want to learn even more.”
Explaining her concerns about teachers becoming less available, the user said she had noticed the change over the past two years. She said many of her son's classes had shifted to self-paced apps, with teachers no longer teaching lessons to the entire class. When her child struggled with certain concepts, she said, the teacher was unwilling to answer his questions.
“This may very well be an issue of not having enough teachers staffed/new teachers, etc. I'm not denying any of the many factors that influence the current educational environment, but this practice of using an online app to facilitate the entire learning environment is not effective.”
She concluded by praising teachers who were doing their jobs well and clarifying that her post was not intended to criticize them. She said she loved education and teachers but disliked seeing children left behind or ignored when they wanted to learn.
One commenter shared an account involving a teacher friend, writing, “One of my best friends is a teacher. He reported a family because they were pulling the high school daughter out of school to babysit the younger children all the time. So then the mother reported that he was sexually harassing and grooming her daughter. It could have been very difficult for him, except he is very obviously gay and if she was an involved parent she would have known that was a stupid thing to lie about. The school did an investigation, but it didn't take long and the daughter told the school she had gone to my teacher friend for help because she was tired of staying at home all the time.”
Another commenter wrote, “Yes, it’s partially parents. It's also schools not having real consequences. Bring back detention and in-school suspension in elementary school. Don’t need corporal punishment but cleaning blackboards, writing an apology letter… don’t just make a sticker chart for good behavior. Disrespect needs to be socially reprehensible and corrected at the time and place it occurs no waiting til the parent/teacher conference next month.”
The Daily Dot could not independently verify the claims made in the thread. The details reflect accounts shared by users in r/AskTeachers. The commenters’ identities have not been confirmed.
