Is it socially acceptable to shame your kid into performing better academically in school? Here's what one fed-up mom did to her teenage boy:
Ronda Holder is so disappointed with her son's poor academic performance that she's resorted to shaming the 15-year-old on the streets of their Tampa Bay, Florida, neighborhood. Holder said the last straw was when her son, James Mond III, failed even his P.E. class. That's when she made a sign detailing Mond's abysmal grade point average—1.22—and forced the boy to walk up and down a busy street corner for hours on end.
Neither Holder nor her husband graduated high school, but she says she wants better education for her son, who she says seems to have no interest in academic achievement. "You take the phone. You take things from them—it don't work," she said. "So embarrassing is the best thing. He don't like to get embarrassed."
How in the world can you flunk PE anyway? Link
No matter how he got to this point, even if the parents share responsibility for his current academic standing, I applaud their decision. I hope others take inspiration from this and do what is necessary to make their children do what is right.
(Would it surprise you considering his parents?)
There is an informal rule in science which states "no 'just so' explanations" another way of stating this is that you need to give some basis for the appearance of some phenomena without saying it is "just so". As in "he is just stupid" or "she is just naive". The premise being that as everything is contingent upon the existence of something else, nothing ever "just" exists, but exists as the consequence of some antecedent chain of causation.
Thus, if the kid is stupid, he isn't "just" stupid. He has good causal justification for being stupid, a causation which extends to the sentiment of the people on his periphery; his community, his country, etc... That people are so quick to suggest a 'just so' explanation of the type "just stupid" is indicative of the swiftness with which his community scape-goats him and ignores their own social contributions - which is itself significant social contribution.
Source: DevPsy.org
The permissive parent attempts to behave in a nonpunitive, acceptant and affirmative manner towards the child's impulses, desires, and actions.
The authoritarian parent attempts to shape, control, and evaluate the behavior and attitudes of the child in accordance with a set standard of conduct, usually an absolute standard, theologically motivated and formulated by a higher authority.
The authoritative parent attempts to direct the child's activities but in a rational, issue-oriented manner. She [the parent] encourages verbal give and take, shares with the child the reasoning behind her policy, and solicits his objections when he refuses to conform.
The fourth is neglectful parenting which I can ignore for this analysis. Baumrind found that authoritative parents succeeded the best at raising well-adjusted children, while the other two generally produced maladjusted children. The woman in question would probably belong to the authoritarian class, which includes: [the parent] values obedience as a virtue and favors punitive, forceful measures to curb self-will at points where the child's actions or beliefs conflict with what she thinks is right conduct.
Of course, such persons believe their method of parenting to be the best; they haven't studied child development.
Hell, we were late most of the time b/c the dumbass PE teachers never paid attention to the time.
But still... I was great at everything else... just meh.. not PE :P
High School is a joke. It's glorified daycare. Even if it wasn't, I doubt rebuking a kid like this is going to make him do better. My guess is he'll drop out as soon as possible.
What he needs imho, is someone who actually wants to help him succeed. That aint his parents.
Still, I don't think public shaming is the way to go.
It may provide more positive outcomes within the context of an environment home to much hostility, but that doesn't mean that it is any more effective than authoritative parenting in those same environments. In-fact, regardless of the efficacy of authoritarian parenting being greater in subpopulations such as African American communities, authoritative parenting still predicts better psychosocial outcomes (Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992; Steinberg, Darling, & Fletcher, 1995) The authoritarian parenting might work better in those subpopulations because of the cultural mileu, and continuing in that vain certainly isn't going to change the culture.