President Obama on parental responsibility in education

We have a new American president and I hope he'll be a great one. From President Obama's brilliant Inaugural Address:

"Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship."

Trusting that his words were not just political rhetoric, South Africans could do worse than to take note and apply them here. Such words, if acted upon, could restore the soul of a nation, not only America, but also South Africa.

Educational issues are obviously to a large extent country and culture specific, but Obama's view elsewhere on parental responsibility and is universally applicable (from Flypaper, the blog of the Fordham Foundation):

"There is no program and no policy that can substitute for a parent who is involved in their child’s education from day one. There is no substitute for a parent who will make sure their children are in school on time and help them with their homework after dinner and attend those parent-teacher conferences... And I have no doubt that we will still be talking about these problems in the next century if we do not have parents who are willing to turn off the TV once in awhile and put away the video games and read to their child. Responsibility for our children’s education has to start at home. We have to set high standards for them and spend time with them and love them. We have to hold ourselves accountable."

A commenter to the blog expanded on this with the following:

"Poorly educated parents can’t help their kids write a research essay or solve an algebra problem, but they should be able to set a time for homework or reading, enforce a bedtime, limit TV on school nights, teach manners and self-control to their children. Most can read aloud to young children or listen to them read."

As a school principal I can only concur.