We received a pamphlet in the mail the other from our high school. It states,

The federal No Child Left Behind law requires me to notify you that [name of high school] did not fully meet the federal government's targets set for school-wide progress last year. This measure, known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is composed of 41 different indicators.

[Name of high school] missed targets in the area of reading for its students identified for special education services and for students who are economically disadvantaged. Achievment level targets in mathmatics were also not met. Additionally, [high school's] graduation rate fell below the targeted level.

I read this pamphlet and said to the husband, "Surely this cannot be the same high school from which our daughter graduated with an IB diploma last year?" But surely, it is. And this just totally and completely reinforces my longstanding assertion that it should not be the job of the public school system (especially at the 9-12 level!) to correct problems that should be dealt with by a) parents and b) society at large.

I've seen kindergarteners come to school without breakfast (and without a lunch, for that matter), wandering in late because mommy or daddy just couldn't be bothered to bust through their hangover and get them to the bus on time, and unable to stay awake because they didn't get to bed until after midnight (courtesy of mommy and daddy's wild Tuesday night party). I've heard 6th graders cussing at their parents on the phone because "You forgot to make sure I brought my homework to school!" I've seen children with horrible home lives disrupt entire classrooms for hours (sometimes days) on end because they have nowhere to direct all their anger and frustration. I know kids who have been hauled from school to school to school (sometimes 5 or 6 different schools in one year). I even know kids whose parents kept them out of school for months at a time because it was just too hard for them to get them enrolled after they moved to a new district.

And when years and years and years of neglect and bad parenting pile up, it's the schools that get blamed because Johnny can't read and Susie can't add 2+2. And the loudest criticism comes from those people who haven't set foot in a public school classroom since their own graduations. Schools aren't places of learning anymore. Now schools are places where teachers have to fix childrens' OTHER problems before they can even address the ones that have to do with learning. In addition, they now have to deal with the burden of demands placed on them by the federal government to prove that they can still teach what needs to be taught—all of this while making less per hour than a general laborer without a high school diploma (oh, the irony!) makes working a construction job.

My children got an EXCELLENT public school education, even in a so-called "poor" state. And they got that education because their father and I took seriously the job of raising our children. (And guess what—it wasn't that hard!) We laid the foundation for learning and they and their teachers built upon it. It is ridiculous to expect teachers in this country—especially at the rates they are paid—to do the job that parents should be doing. And if parents are finding it too difficult to raise their children, then other social issues need to be addressed instead of dumping all the blame on the public school system.

If schools were filled only with children who came to school well-fed, well-rested, and whose parents took an interest in what was happening in their kids' lives, THEN we would have reason to criticize schools for abysmal test results or low graduation rates. That isn't the reality of the public school system, though, and we need to stop punishing teachers for it.