Governments have fostered a sense of entitlement in private schools. They should be enforcing the principle of putting students first.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child is clear: in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. A recent article in The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 5 July, raised serious doubts about the extent to which Australia’s school system is upholding that principle.

Headlined “Schools take on entitled parents”, the article reported that principals of high-fee, highly resourced independent schools say parental entitlement has grown to the point where some parents behave as though they own and control teachers. The accompanying editorial was headed “Meddling parents do no favours for their children”.

The real question is whether they do actual harm.

It is not hard to imagine an aggressive parent who spends thousands buying their child a place in one of these schools treating that child with similar aggression:

I had to miss an important board meeting to go up to your school today and tell the headmaster to pull his head in – and now I want my $50,000 worth from you, in more homework and better exam results.

I had to miss an important board meeting to go up to your school today and tell the headmaster to pull his head in – and now I want my $50,000 worth from you, in more homework and better exam results.

Some students, impressed by their parents’........

© Pearls and Irritations