Debbie Squires, Education Official, Says Teachers Know What's Best For Kids, Not Their Parents (VIDEO)

Debbie Squires, education official at the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association (MEMSPA), has sparked some controversy after telling the House Education Committee in a hearing for a new school choice package, that teachers know better than parents what's best for their children, MLive.com reports.

Squires elicited a shocked response from Education Committee Chair Thomas McMillin after testifying on the parent's role in school operations.

"[Educators] are the people who know best about how to serve children, that's not necessarily true of an individual resident," Squires said. "I'm not saying they don't want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint."

McMillin responds, "Wow, parents don't know what's best for their child..."

Afterward, MLive's Dave Murray approached McMillin and got this comment:

"I'm surprised I didn't lose it when she said that," McMillin told Murray. "They think they know what's better for children than their own parents, and that's what I find upsetting."

According to the report, however, several readers disagreed with McMillin, including one under the username Johnny0000.

"Yes, people who are trained professionals at something tend to know more about it than those that don't. When my child has an issue that involves education I don't ask MYSELF, I get input from her TEACHERS."

The charter-school bill discussed would effectively lift the state's cap on charter schools, including virtual ones, without creating quality safety guards. Michigan currently has 225 charter schools, and their performance is currently "mixed" both in the state and nationally.

An extensive report on cyber education by the New York Times notes many educators believe that virtual schools to be important in situations like teenage mothers, but that it may not be optimal for elementary schoolers. In the report, deputy superintendent of Memphis city schools Irving Hamer Jr. told the paper that children have a lot to be gained by attending a traditional school.

"The early development of children requires lots of interaction with other children for purposes of socialization, developing collaboration and teamwork, and self-definition,” Irving Hamer Jr., deputy superintendent of Memphis city schools, told the Times.

The votes on the Michigan cyber charter school issue is expected to come in the committee's next meeting, but some educators have asked lawmakers to prevent the opening of more of such school until data is available to determine if the schools are effective.

WATCH:

Comments

[jnor65]

01:55 PM on 10/21/2012

Hmmm...

[billoforlando]

07:27 PM on 05/15/2012

Our daughter had a minor learning disability and it was like pulling teeth to get her school to deal with it. The problem with Squire's comment is that she made it a sweeping generalization which is, of course, not correct. Her comment was a perfect illustration of Liberal's attitude of "We know what is best and you don't". Check around - that attitude is everywhere, especially in the federal government.

[Bergull]

09:02 AM on 02/16/2012

When our daughter was in kindergarten and our district was in the middle of the half-day vs full-day K debate, a key administrator - a full-day advocate - told us precisely the same thing. "Educators know what is best for your child." She had a 25-point list about why full day K was best...including, "Children will hear their favorite book more than once" , "Children will learn from people other than their parents." "Children can return in the afternoon to a block structure they built in the morning." etc. etc. We laughed so hard our collective tummies hurt. We ended up homeschooling our daughter, where she heard her favorite books numerous times a day, had creative structures in the living room for weeks and had a bunch of lively, educated adults and peers around her on a daily basis. She went on to earn her associate degree at 18 and graduates this year from her university. She's happy, confident, capable and independent. So there, Miss No-It-All! :-)

[aicequeen36]

01:35 AM on 02/16/2012

I hate my daughter being in public school..They do act like they know better than the parents ,and I am sick of it.Parents can no longer decide the can keep their kids home for illnesses. It has to be a documented medical reason to be excused.The public schools need to focus more on their budgets and stop the ego trips and power trips they are on.There is so much wrong with public schools I can not even begin to write it all down.Btw..I would love to e-mail this "educator" and give her some examples of what she should be doing with her time ,instead of stating that the teachers know better than the parents.

[June Cook]

03:21 PM on 02/15/2012

How does a parent contact Debbie Squires? I have documented what the public school system tried to do to my quiet, shy son when they wanted to label him as emotionally impaired and told me that after kindergarten he was only able to count to 9 which I knew was not accurate. We removed him from the public school system and put him into private, Christian school. There my son became very out-going and as parents we were told a few times that he was gifted in Math. Today my son is attending a private, Christian college where he is a very good student and is pursuing an accounting major. What would have become of him if we had not been able to afford to remove him from the public school system? Not too long ago I was told by a friend, who was a public school educator, that she was amazed at what I have accomplished with my son. I do not have a high opinion of the public school system and I will never consider them more competent than me to know what is best for my child.

[Mark Urbanski]

02:43 PM on 02/15/2012

Debbie Squires should be fired for that comment - period.

[aicequeen36]

01:36 AM on 02/16/2012

I completely agree..fav'd

[Rick Lakehomer]

01:54 AM on 02/15/2012

So if educators know what is best for our kids then why are schools and their attendant districts in so much trouble?

Most of the teachers our two children had were seriously lacking in several areas. In fairness they are not able to be instructors, therapists, nutritionists. physician assistants, law enforcement, you get the picture. When the NEA and state education administrating agencies force their agendas through the unions like the SEIU, I think it can make teachers even LESS effective and lose sight of why they are there.

Teachers need to return to TEACHING and parents need to become parents again. The wholesale ruination of the traditional family has not helped matters at all and has shifted an unfair burden onto our education system.

We home schooled both our children up to junior high or middle school because our schools . My kids did not need to have sex ed starting in kindergarten or 'play' being muslim when other religions were excluded and often times made to look evil and wrong. Excessive diversity, multiculturalism and political correctness have trumped giving our kids a good education. We have thrown away billions of dollars in the name of education and it is never enough. Bad teachers must be fired and not protected and excellent teachers deserve to be well compensated.I am sick and tired of being held hostage by crappy unions that are more worried about their members than why Johnny or Susie cannot read, write or do basic math.

[SKBB]

11:21 PM on 02/14/2012

Education doesn't necessarily make someone wiser or more caring (daily headlines about teachers who sexually abuse children, anyone?) The real test is, of course, whether teachers raise kinder, more thoughtful, more honest, more self-disciplined, more intelligent, more successful, more addiction-free children of their own. I think their kids come out pretty much like everyone else's. I know wonderful teachers, and I know teachers I'd get a restraining order against before I'd let them anywhere near my kids. In proportions pretty much equal to the general population. When you add to that the fact that teachers as a group tend to be more politically left than people in general, I'll hang on to my parental rights, thanks very much. No wonder more and more folks are choosing homeschool. This woman needs to lose her God-complex.

[Amommymoose]

10:44 PM on 02/14/2012

Enough with the doctor analogies already. We rank equally low in education and healthcare statistics and spend more than any other country on BOTH!

The precious little information from my degree that applies to teaching my own kids can be easily found by any diligent parent--especially with the advent of the internet. The public schools are a necessary function of a society for those who have no options to ensure a basic education for the country (and in many places, it is not).

To say that parents are incapable of making education decisions for their children because they lack a teaching degree is ludicrous. AND in many states, you have nothing more than a parent teaching in private school classrooms... but this seems to be okay. How is it that someone without a teaching degree is somehow capable of teaching 20-40 students in a private school but cannot be capable of teaching 1-6 of their own?

When do statistics mean more than hearsay and bravado? Because there ARE statistics on: public school performance, private school performance, the performance of both in the same district with the same demographic of students, homeschoolering performance, the performance of untrained/unlicensed teachers vs. licensed/trained teachers... and ALL of it is very clear that there are superior alternatives to learning in a public school classroom with a licensed and trained teacher. When does it become about what's best for people instead of saving your job?

[uniquindividual]

08:17 PM on 02/12/2012

Also...

We assume medical doctors know what's in the best interests of their patients because the Dr. is a trained specialist in that arena.

Teachers are also trained specialists, but in the arena of education.

[andrewclunn]

06:32 PM on 02/14/2012

Except that I get to chose my doctor, not have it assigned to me and then told I can't get a second opinion because a Doctor's Union knows what's best for me.

[uniquindividual]

09:45 AM on 02/15/2012

You can only chose a Dr. who is accepting new patients. They chose as much or more as you.

It is common for students to switch teachers if the dynamic is not working.

[jnaujok]

03:02 PM on 02/15/2012

Don't worry, Obamacare fixes that for you.

[SKBB]

11:27 PM on 02/14/2012

Not everyone assumes this. We choose a doctor based not just on his/her training, but also his/her philosophy of health and probably recommendations of one sort or another as to competence. We go to the doctor to get information about our health (diagnostics) and his/her advice, but in the end we choose whether and how to act on that advice, or whether to seek a second opinion or choose a different doctor.

[uniquindividual]

09:43 AM on 02/15/2012

There are only so many doctors. and many don't accept new cases because their practice is at capacity.

A person can switch, but they really can't chose their DR., their Dr, accepts them or does not,

You are not thinking through this issue.

I never said teachers are perfect.

[uniquindividual]

08:13 PM on 02/12/2012

On many issues parents don't. Nutrition is a big one. The importance of reading is another (Parents MUST set an example on this and too often do not). A kid who is a bully often has a parent who is also. Alcohol and drug abuse are also too common among parents, which is another poor example set by parents.

If parents always knew what was best, society would be a paradise by now.

[Maximus Max]

05:19 PM on 02/14/2012

And if school teachers and administrators always knew what's best, our school systems wouldn't be broke, half our kids failing and not graduating, and we'd have the best and brightest kids on the planet. Missed that one by a little bit too...

[uniquindividual]

09:50 AM on 02/15/2012

Did I say teachers always know what's best?

On the first day of kindergarten, some kids arrive with the ability to read a bit, add and subtract a bit, write their name, tie their shoes and play nice with others.

Some show up with none of those skills.

Each student goes how to a family that is either preopeling their child academically for the remainder of their school carrer or not.

The first five years are the most important for brain development. Unenlightened parents place their kids in a permanent hole biologically.

[Schneb]

06:57 PM on 02/15/2012

You're assuming that teachers are all powerful--there's a good bit of difference between knowing a good educational option for a kid or for society vs. being able to control students' lives to the extent that they all thrive and excel academically. I can see how a what's basically a fancy version of a correspondence school is not a good idea for most teens--I can list a lot of ways that I see that as setting them up to fail, or for society to be sold a bill of good, but I have though I teach in a good school in a town that values education, I have very little control over whether kids will do their work (in an honest manner) once they leave my classroom. I can't stop them from spending hour after hour online with goodness-knows-what for input, and then coming in to school at barely operational levels of wakefulness. Etc. etc.

[SKBB]

11:28 PM on 02/14/2012

And if teachers did, our school systems wouldn't be in the mess they are now.

[uniquindividual]

09:39 AM on 02/15/2012

The quality of schools is a reflection of the quality of the parenting in a community.

[Allthosewhowander]

03:28 PM on 02/15/2012

The quality of schools is a reflection of the leadership of the school and the district, as well as the effectiveness of the education mandates past down to teachers in the classrooms. You can't seriously believe that teachers, alone, make all the decisions that govern what happens in schools. Things would look quite a bit different if the bloated education bureaucracy gave any value to teachers' experience in and knowledge of instruction and learning.

[sydneymoon]

08:47 AM on 02/12/2012

Squires said. "I'm not saying they don't want the best for their children, but they MAY NOT know what actually is best from an education standpoint."

The parents MAY NOT know. When the teacher works with the parent to understand the whole child and then offers advice on sound academic practices the the parent MAY NOT know, then it is a win-win for the child.

[zSpin2001]

10:54 PM on 02/11/2012

It's attitudes like the legislators that is the reason we are in the mess in the first place. Teaching is a profession and we act like all those teachers are our little servants. I imagine the AMA and ADA would definitely agree with the statement that Debbie Squires made about their profession. The lawmakers in Michigan are a bunch of condescending misogynists.

[Lloyd Wilson]

09:06 AM on 02/14/2012

Medical Doctors and Dentists don't go on strike and act like idiots when taxpayers don't give them their way. Doctors and Dentists do not depend no taxpayer funds at least for now.. By no stretch of the imagination are teachers "professionals".

[zSpin2001]

10:34 AM on 02/14/2012

Really. Have you talked to medical doctors lately about the cut to the medicare benefit? The doctors with whom I am acquainted, meaning my friends, tell me that they will only make $1.50 per medicaid patient per visit if the cut goes into effect. We will see how happy medical doctors are when this goes into effect and as a professor, oh wait I mean professional, I don't believe Debbie Squires was acting like an "idiot" (quotes properly used). By no stretch of the imagination do I think you even understand what a profession is by any standard definition, philosophically or otherwise.

[MBGarcia]

07:11 PM on 02/11/2012

I have to agree and disagree. The assumption is sometimes made that parents are uneducated or unrealistic about their children's abilities. This can be true, yes, but not always.

A teacher accused our son of not writing an essay he turned in; she gave him an A, but told him that wasn't his work. He, in fact, had written the essay. I called the school and asked for a meeting with her, my son, and the principal. The argument was he never did that quality of work for her. I told her that he knew I expected better and would accept no less than the best he could do. She didn't even know he was an avid and advanced reader, so I told her to push him and I told him, in front of her, "we both now know better."

From day one I told my kids I would side with the party who was in the right, be it them or the teacher. I always told teachers the same thing: tell me what you need and I'll help you as much as I can; we both have the same purpose and I don't expect you to do it all.

My kids are not academics, but they are smart, well-read, and understand the value of a good education. Once the teachers realized we considered it a collaboration and had realistic expectations for our children we all worked better together.

[zSpin2001]

10:56 PM on 02/11/2012

Personal anecdotes don't apply to the national discussion. Anecdotes are simply that anecdotes. I am sure that your son had multiple experiences that were much better than the negativity to which you point and yet we always point to the negative. Your kids are academic if they are smart, well read, and understand the value of education.

[MBGarcia]

06:54 AM on 02/12/2012

In this particular case, I have illustrated that education -in our household- is a collaborative effort with the schools. Ms. Squires basically said "parents don't know; teachers do." Parents who do take the time and put in the effort (without interfering obsessively and with an inclination to favor the children) are an important part of the process, and when there is parent/teacher communication and a recognition of the elements each brings to the process education happens.

No, my children are NOT academics. We don't emphasize academic achievement for the sake of impressing anyone and, at best, they are average in their school performance, but they have a solid foundation of love of learning.

The negativity to which I point is, indeed, quite present. Teaching used to be a vocation and now it is a career, and teachers have been saddled with myriad administrative tasks that interfere and deplete the classroom work. When everything boils down to more paperwork being filed, the children are taught to "fit" the papers, and the parents either don't want to be in the process or abuse it.

[SKBB]

11:39 PM on 02/14/2012

Why do personal anecdotes not apply? From a certain perspective, it's the personal that should be protected above all else. Government schools are mostly about mass-produced education. What, really, is the ultimate purpose of education? Citizens who serve the government? Or well-rounded individuals, educated in diverse, personally fulfilling ways, whom the government serves. Teachers like Squires are trained for the former and can't possibly accomplish the latter because they know almost nothing about their students as individuals. Parents need to advocate for their children, as individuals, within school systems designed mostly to produce skills that serve the government's needs.

[kinger50]

04:29 PM on 02/11/2012

Most parents think their children are angels and perfect to boot. A teacher sees children of all types and, in my opinion, has a better understanding of how a particular child is progressing as compared to similar children in age, or ability, background, etc. So many of my students, while curious and clever, lack the self discipline required to become good students. The best thing a parent can do is to provide a child with an example of a consistent work ethic. Many students are oblivious to the fact that school is often hard work and there is no easy way. Therefore, the teacher has a completely different insight into the child based upon not only who they are in isolation, but who they are in the context of working with and alongside their peers. Following directions for example. It is clear to me that many parents let their children not listen or follow instructions at home. All of these behaviors are critical to learning.