quote:
I am kind of appalled that people seem to think that the 'average parent' isn't qualified to teach their own kids.
About science? Or many other subjects? No, I absolutely don't think that the average parent knows anything close to enough about science, history, mathematics, economics, computer skills literature, English, physics, health, etc. to be qualified to teach more than the bare basics. Even then they will probably get a lot wrong.
If a parent is a physicist or a computer programmer or a investment banker, or a carpenter, or a journalist they would probably be good at teaching certain parts of certain subjects. But I wouldn't expect the Physicist to have a deep knowledge of, say, medieval European history, or the journalist to be able to teach a great lesson on the properties of matter and energy.
Look, there are people who go to college for quite a long time to become professionals at relaying information to children. Even then, with all of that instruiction, some of them aren't especially good at it.
What makes you think that a parent with no specialized training in teaching children, and even less knowledge of a lot of different subjects, is better qualified at teaching than a professional?