5. Read the following paragraph and write whether emphasis should be laid on parental responsibility.

Educators are tired of taking the blame for declining achievement in classrooms, when much of the root cause is lack of support and motivation in the home. There are some factors that many see as putting new strains on family solidarity and stability. Among them the intrusion of alien values into the home through television and the rise of a permissive theory of child rearing that became popular through the writings of Dr Benjamin Spock and others. This theory was critical of punishment in any form, or denial of rewards to disobedient children. Parents were encouraged to discuss problems with their youngsters, relying on persuasion rather than punishment. There are good and loving and conscientious people among the parents of the "bad" children. No parent should take full blame for what his child does. But the notion that a parent has no control over determining of person his child will be seems to me dangerous. It lets parents off the hook too easily. Unruliness begins at home, teachers insist, arising sometimes from permissiveness of parents or perhaps from hostility or indifference. And school officials say the parents who demand stricter measures everybody else's children are the first to accuse teachers of unfairness when their own offspring are involved. Parents are required to instill their children with the habits and attitudes that support study and good behaviour. From the public, educators need both money and ideas to provide the generation of young with quality education.

From "AWay to Debating”

6. Make notes under the heading “The school plays a vital part in bringing up a child” Be ready to discuss your notes in pairs.

6. A. Read the following texts:

How does divorce affect the children?

Divorce need not be a hardship on children. In some cases it alleviates the stresses caused by constant conflict between parents. Not all marriages are worth saving. More attention needs to be paid to helping the couples in failed marriages to part with minimum complications. Children, who have fewer defenses and depend more upon the adults for security, may feel more strain. Sometimes in the conflict between divorcing parents, children are used as Ping Pong balls, flying back and forth between the parents. Or children can play the parents against each other in the transition created by divorce. Furthermore, adults who divorce and remarry are searching consciously for a better way al growing and being happy. But the children are carried along in these processes without choice. A child does not say to the parent: "Marry" or "Divorce". Children are carried along without being par­ticipants in the decisions, so they are confused and mystified - and this is the real source of their danger. Then, when one or both parents remarry, there is another transition and another crisis. Suppose a divorced man meets a woman he wants to marry. He needs not only to establish emotional contact and intimacy with her, but he also needs to become a father to the children of her previous marriage, whom he doesn't know. At the same time he has to maintain a good parental relationship with his own children by a previous marriage. This is a very complex network with many built-in problems.

- What do you think might help children and parents in this situation?

- In some societies the process of separation and divorce involves counseling of parents to help them deal with the crisis and its impact on children. We need to develop some institutional systems of support to help parents provide support to their children - a new parental function as children subjected to a more complex kind of family organisation. It could be incorporated into institutions such as family services or child-guidance clinics, but parents need to be able to avail themselves counseling without waiting for a pathological situation to develop.