HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why don’t some schools hide grades from parents to avoid upsetting them?

6 points by amichail ↗ HN
Why don’t some schools have counsellors who can give students advice based on their grades so that parents don’t need to see report cards and possibly suffer mental health issues as a result?

26 comments

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steve_taylor
Why on earth would schools hide grades from parents?
amichail
To improve the mental health of the parents.
steve_taylor
How does frustrating the living shit out of parents, who want to help their kids, improve their mental health?
amichail
The school can help their kids. There is no reason to distress the parents over bad grades.
steve_taylor
Why prevent parents helping their kids if they want to?
amichail
You could have both kinds of schools, ones that hide grades from parents and ones that do not.
steve_taylor
Parents would send their kids to schools that hide things from them only when the schools that don’t are at capacity and stop accepting further enrollments.

Schools that hide things from parents would likely be a magnet for incompetent and lazy educators.

Jensson
I never understood this point of view, teachers are just people doing a regular job, just like basically everyone else. Assuming that teachers should have the same level of engagement as a good parent is just ignorant, very few teachers are like that. Most don't care more about your kids future than technical support cares about your struggles with their product. You can't expect technical support to solve your problem, it is better to learn to solve them yourself, and even if you don't do everything yourself the more engaged you are the easier it will be for the technical support to help you.
hulitu
The school does not help kids. Most of the teachers are not able to present concepts even to people who know those concepts, let alone children. Hiding grades is bad because the parents cannot help the child to improve and the school does not care.
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Bostonian
Because schools should not hiding information from parents. I'm a father of 3 and would not accept my children's grades being hidden from me.

Our school district uses a web app called Aspen, through which parents can see their kids' grades in real time (as teachers grade things), not just when report cards are published. It's good not to overreact to each data point.

steve_taylor
I’m less interested in seeing grades than actual tests and other assessments. That’s where the real feedback is.
codingdave
If grades are causing mental health issues or other problems, that is definitely a problem. And it is counselors job to help out giving advice on academic progress as well as healthy functioning in schools. But those two don't connect to the point that parents should be excluded from their children's education. Public school is a service available to parents, not a replacement for parenting.
sjoerger
What mental health issues do you think parents will have from their child’s grades?
amichail
If the child struggles in school, this will make a parent wonder about their own intelligence and the intelligence of their spouse. It would be depressing in that regard.
codingdave
This does not sound like a problem with the school or the student. It sounds like the parents need their own help. Being a parent is hard. And does make you wonder, and make you question your mistakes. It is a really rough job. But trying to pass parenting obligations on to other people is not the answer. If you are struggling this much, seek out help for yourself.
sjoerger
To me this is a description of a caring and responsible parent not a mental health issue. The world will never be full of just joy. Humans need to learn to cope and adapt.
hindsightbias
Have you been following the legislation in Florida?
dudul
Why would I suffer from mental health issues if my kid gets bad grades? I'll just do what I can as a parent to help them get better.
toast0
There's a private school near me which doesn't do grades, which might be close enough.

If you're a parent and seeing your kids grades would distress you, you could choose not to look.

baash05
God help your kid when they are under performing at work.

Oh.. you failed to learn to read and write. Well no grades. Good luck on your Jib Hunt. Hope you have someone help you rite you're rezuma.

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baash05
Grades are a measure of understanding VS expectations. If my kid is struggling with a topic, then I can hire tutors, or just sit with them and work through things.

You can't fix what you can't measure.

Teaching kids is the schools job, but it's my job too. I'd argue it's more my job than their job. I'm the CEO of my kids education. If they are falling it's on me to help them.

If I don't know there's a problem, how can I help.

anm89
Phrasing any broad question as "why dont" makes no sense. Who are you asking the question to? Its a subjective question so the why depends on the answerer.