Editor, The Progress:

The education system in America is failing. I am a retired first grade teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood. I have 29 years of experience in the American education system.

Since 1970 the spending for public education has more than doubled yet student achievement at the end of high school is stagnant and high school graduation has declined by at least 4 percent.

So for over 40 years we have wrongly assumed that putting more tax dollars into education would equal a quality education system. All we have managed to create is a huge educational bureaucracy with an insatiable appetite for spending taxpayer’s money.

What is required for quality education to take place in my opinion is three major components...a good teacher, good parents, and a willing child. If any of these three major components are missing, the quality education process suffers.

So where should our tax dollars be better spent? In my opinion, money needs to be spent on improving the component of good parents. Good parenting skills produces willing students which also produces future good teachers.

My suggestion is making it mandatory for all high school graduates to pass a Parenting Skills 101 class. After all, a parent is a child’s first teacher. Children learn by example. If a child does not have a good parent the cycle of poor parenting skills continues.

Included in this course should be topics such as effective proper discipline techniques, guidelines for a parent/child relationships, helping a child develop self-esteem, helping a child with homework techniques, and how to properly interact with a child’s public/private school.

By requiring this parenting skills class for graduation one would dramatically increase the likelihood of having the three components of good teacher, good parents, and a willing child.