Gringo (¡compadre!) honestly, I suspect that protecting your kids against the bureaucracy is an important part of the job in modern schools; I’m suspicious — with no evidence besides my antediluvian experience in schools — that a fair number of the “behavior problems” come from kids who are either bored to death because they can’t move on to the next thing, feeling self-hate for not being quick enough to stay with the class, or simply ill-suited to the regimented environment. (See some of Dr Helen’s posts about the redefinition of normal little-boy behavior as a “behavior problem”.)
That said, there really are some kids who really are discipline problems. I wonder what the effect would be if the teachers and the parents both understood it was the parents’ money, and had a longer-term relationship with some sense of there being a relationship? It seems to me that modern schools leave teachers with a sense of near-immunity, and parents with a sense of impotence.
Honestly, I would love to see it tried; I’m very suspicious that an attempt to try it with public funding would be fought to the death by teachers unions and school districts.
