The Ultimate Authority over Children

Henry Cate has an excellent post regarding who is ultimately responsible for children? Teachers or Parents?.

Exploring the history and development of public edcuation, Henry notes:

I find it sad that many involved with public schools, as administrators or teachers, feel that because they have been "educated," they can do whatever they want to the students. They do not want to be accountable to the parents, or even allow parents to have a voice in the process. Public schools are often trying some new fad in the way various topics are taught, in reading, math, or so on. Often there is a new fad every year or two. If the new approach doesn’t work, or inflicts harm on the children, there is no accountability.

This is true no matter what occurs in the classroom, because coming the end of the academic year--students move on to a new teacher who may or may not remediate the students and not matter what the student has suffered some consequences of poor teaching.