{"id":4465,"date":"2016-05-06T08:11:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T14:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4465"},"modified":"2016-05-06T08:11:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T14:11:26","slug":"when-does-parenting-end-and-schooling-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/05\/when-does-parenting-end-and-schooling-begin.html","title":{"rendered":"When does parenting end and schooling begin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ATrailnet-SR2S-09.jpg;<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an item out of Slate<\/a>, linking to an article in the Washington Post<\/a> (it\u2019s the beginning of the month, so I haven\u2019t hit my article limit): \u00a0the Washington, D.C., public school system is going to teach its second graders how to ride a bike.<\/p>\n

This is being accomplished via 1,000 bikes, purchased with a mix of District and donor money, which will rotate through the schools as each, in turn, has a mini-unit on bike-riding, consisting of four weeks (perhaps extended next year) of 50 minute-per-week lessons. \u00a0The second grade year was chosen because of the expectation that a good number of kids will have already learned by then, so that the program fills in what\u2019s missing for those who haven\u2019t. \u00a0To be honest, it surprises me that the lessons are so short \u2014 I would have thought that 4 x 50 minutes wouldn\u2019t be nearly enough time to learn, especially since kids without that skill by 2nd grade are a mix of families without bicycles at home and kids with mild impairments in motor skills\/balance \u2014 the type that don\u2019t merit or qualify them for occupational therapy but still mean they fall behind.<\/p>\n

The Slate article cites a District official as being inspired to begin this program after starting with a bike safety unit in which children were being instructed on \u201calways wear a helmet\u201d who had never ridden a bike. \u00a0And, I have to say, this makes sense in the context of poor kids who will never be exposed to bike-riding in the first place, whose parents don\u2019t bike and can\u2019t teach them, and for whom biking, as an adult, could be a meaningful transportation alternative, when cars are unaffordable and busses don\u2019t run everywhere you need to go, or require multiple transfers. \u00a0(Remember the man who walked 21 miles to and from work<\/a>?)<\/p>\n

But the slant the Slate article took bothered me: \u00a0the author is a middle-class DC mom, whose son attends a charter school and hence wasn\u2019t eligible for the district program, and she hired an occupational therapist to teach her son to ride a bike, and praises the program as something that should be universal, to take this burden away from parents in general, not just to remedy a deficiency in poor neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

How far does this go? \u00a0What life skills should our schools teach, and which are a part of parenting? \u00a0The idea of a middle-class family asking the schools to teach bike-riding because it\u2019s no fun for parents sounds preposterious and lends itself to jokes (\u201cwhat next? \u00a0should there be Laundry Class before kids head off to college?\u201d), but at the same time, some life skills had formerly been a part of schooling and have now been abandoned \u2014 cooking and sewing in home ed, and woodworking in shop class, for instance \u2014 while others are being added; for instance, gym class, health class, and personal finance lessons are now being talked about as \u201clife skills.\u201d \u00a0And in Michigan, one statewide high school graduation requirement has always been either swimming class or swimming proficiency.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts, as always, welcomed.<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ATrailnet-SR2S-09.jpg; By Trailnet (originally posted to Flickr as Trailnet-SR2S-09) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an item out of Slate, linking to an article in the Washington Post (it\u2019s the beginning of the month, so I haven\u2019t hit my article limit): \u00a0the Washington, D.C., public school system is going to teach its second graders how to ride a bike. This is being accomplished via 1,000 bikes, purchased with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[379,94],"class_list":["post-4465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bicycles","tag-education"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen does parenting end and schooling begin?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's an item out of Slate, linking to an article in the Washington Post (it's the beginning of the month, so I haven't hit my article limit): \u00a0the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/05\/when-does-parenting-end-and-schooling-begin.html\" \/>\n<meta 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