Let the goat go .... The scapegoat that is the American public classroom.

Between May 5 and June 3, I saw at least nine letters from people who have experienced what can go on in our classrooms on a daily basis. I have also seen columnist Star Parker and political cartoonist Gary Varvel share their thoughts on the collapse of our society.

Many people seem to feel that the problem is the public school system. Yet the government has poured billions of dollars into the system over the last 30 years with minimal results. I’d propose the problem isn’t the schools, but rather the parents. Many parents are not being the role models parenting demands. Others are too busy being their child’s friend. Too few are asking their children to demonstrate personal responsibility and accept consequences for their behavior. This wreaks havoc in a classroom and takes away from the educational experience for the children who are there to learn.

Stop the scapegoating. Children should come to school ready to learn: respect authority, work hard, listen to others,and then they will learn. Teachers are accustomed to being mentors, social workers, confidants, and protectors, on top of being educators, but they cannot solve every problem in society when so many parents are not willing to hold their children accountable for their learning.

We all have a responsibility to our youths, to improve our society and build our country’s future. This includes families in the home. We cannot continue to outsource good parenting to the schools and expect different results.

Kurt Hamm

Colorado Springs