Revised Annotation 2

The Predicament Urban Middle-Class Families Encounter:

Parents Are Not the Best Teachers

Nowadays, we have fewer and fewer children every year in Taiwan. According to The Predicament Urban Middle-Class Families Encounter: Parents Are Not the Best Teachers in Common Wealth No.419, 2009, the author, Sherry Lee, thought children get what their parents give them too much to lack the basic ability of living. For example, she once visited a kindergarten, and saw a five-year-old child sitting on the chair to wait for the teacher taking off his shoes. After 20 minutes, the teacher shouted her orders to the boy; then, the boy unwillingly took off his shoes by himself. "The new generation generally lacks the spirit of adventure, ability of distinguishing between right and wrong, and discipline. Also, they delay to grow up." she wrote.

In 2007, nuclear families, single parent families, grandparent-breeding families are over 50% in Taiwan. In contrast with cooperation which extended families have, those are in the lonely upbringing environment--because when parents are both busy, no one can help them take care of their children. Apparently, the change of the family structure brings new problem about education. Nearly 40% parents spend less than three hours to get along with children who age 6 to 12 years old. Parents and children only have greeting but do not know the details of life with each other. Parents are learning models to children; however, they are overwhelmed by work. Many families are like a desert lodge; parents are so busy to be "p.m. parents"—children see them only at night. Parents and children become lonely travelers who have less conversations and eyes intersection. 

Married women in Taiwan have 1.1 children on average; however, "no time" and "the economic burden" are main troubles for parents to take care of children under six years old.  To reduce burdens, parents turn to third parties for teaching and looking after their children. They depend on third parties and believe they can teach children well. As a result, when children are not in line with their expectations, a quarrel between them comes out. Most parents do not realize what children mainly learn from school are limited knowledge and skills. Besides, how can a teacher take care of every student in a class well? Children still need to learn something being different from what in school. However, parents may not be the best teachers to children because they do not understand well how to teach and what to teach. Some parents are aware of that so they find some methods to help them teach their children, just like "exchanging children to teach" mentioned in my first annotation. Well, besides "exchanging children to teach," what other useful methods can parents take? Let's find more!

Taken from http://phoenix.wearenetwork.com/

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Work Cited

Lee, S. (2009, April). The Predicament Urban Middle-Class Families Encounter: Parents Are Not the Best Teachers. Common Wealth, unknown pages.