As an educator myself, I agree with you for the most part. I have also noticed that kids can be sneaky and work hard to maintain appearances when they feel that what they’re experiencing doesn’t suit them. I’ve had parents find out the extent of the lies their kids are telling them halfway through the school year, or even at its end in some cases. I also had to learn to take anything my students say, with as much grace as with a grain of salt. Sometimes parents just do not know what their kids are doing because their kids know that their parents want to believe them and everything they do and they’re quick to take advantage of that. Fortunately, when the parents find out, they are to tell their kids that the behavior is not acceptable. I also think you and your wife do well to hold your daughter accountable to being a responsible and respectful child and student. Emphasizing truth and grace, and everything you do is will be difficult. You’re both doing wonderfully and keep it up!

But a few generations before, generally only 1 parent worked. The other stayed home and set good examples and taught their child skills. Now that we live in an economy where it is impossible to survive without 2 incomes and they do not have as much time with their children. I have friends who have no choice but to work 8am to 6pm shift plus a commute 4 days a week. The alternative jobs in their field are 8am to 8pm with weekends and nights. When they are home they still have to maintain a house, cook, clean. When are they getting the time to top up lessons for kids. Also computer skills and Microsoft skills have to be taught. A lot of families do not have computers now that phones and tablets do the same job. I'm 36 but my secondary school taught us Microsoft commands in IT from year 9. They also taught us touch type once a week.

Some kids don't have parents or guardians who can help, whether it be they're busy or they simply refuse to help, it's not always accessible to kids

As a teacher, thank you for saying that! If parents cant get their kids to get up and get to school in the morning, what can we teachers do? If you don’t feed your kids healthy/enough foods, make sure they get enough sleep, don’t spend all day on their iPads/phones, how are they going to learn in class? We can only do so much, we have them for 5 hours a day (learning time, not including recess and lunch, during which we also continue to educate kids on social skills, eating healthy foods first, playing and getting exercise) you have them their entire lives! We have a limited amount of time to teach them a large amount of materials, but when kids come to school with all this baggage, they can’t learn! And some things just aren’t in the curriculum! Sorry, teaching your child to tie their shoes isn’t in the curriculum, you need to do that at home! I’m too busy teaching them their letters and numbers so they can then read and do math!

I have emailed my son’s 1st and 2nd grade teachers to ask how to do something or what something means. I’m quite bright but I was taught very differently and it was a lot of years ago too so some bits I’ve just forgotten. Could I have looked like a fool? Sure. Do I care? No. My job was to help my child understand the concepts at school. I’ve done a lot of work on my own looking at this “new math” concept. I’ve struggled a lot more to help him with grammar, spelling, and writing pieces. I know how things are spelled, pronounced, and written, but to explain it? Working with him on reading was quite a fun look at how ridiculous English is.