Which has a bigger influence on a person, the education system or their parents / family / culture?

Context is eVerything.

It’s a mixed bag, really. We are all influenced by those people and things we see and interact with. The more we see and interact, the more influence is brought to the party. Some parents don’t get to or don’t choose to interact with their children very much. That might sound bad, and it might be, but sometimes things like a job interferes. However it could also be that the parent is too wrapped up in their own world to be a huge factor in their children’s lives. When that happens, the other things that the child interacts with gain importance. It might be school or it might be friends or it might be video games or social media. And how those things interact with the child will help determine what is the biggest influence in that child’s life.
The question seems to want to defend schools, but schools do have limitations. There are teachers that are very good and influential. But there are also teachers that are very bad teachers. They don’t know how to teach, sometimes they spew their distorted views of things on to the kids. Sometimes the teachers are just overwhelmed…too many students and not enough time to give them quality teaching. Sometimes there are one or two students that are very disruptive and the entire class suffers from the time spent dealing with them. Sometimes schools get into other distractions that have nothing to do with the actual school. Romance, drugs, raging hormones, sports, friends…all are distractions from what school is supposed to do and all are influential on the children.

I’ve met my share of the bad teachers. It’s depressing to come upon it. I wish you could be a fly on the wall to listen to discussions in the teacher’s lounge. The vast majority care very much.

I have former classmates who took all the same classes I took, including English, but some of them can’t write a lucid sentence to save their lives. It isn’t the education system’s fault.
My parents were both raised in poverty. When my Dad started moving into the professional world he had to relearn the English language to speak properly. My Mom was raised by immigrants who could barely speak English. They both put a premium on proper language.

I consider it a multiplier rather than either/or.

Let’s rate PC, parenting and culture, on a 0 – 100% scale,
Let’s also rate S, schooling, on a 0 – 100 % scale.
Student outcome is PC x S.
If the parents are totally ignorant and do not value education, PC is 0%. Zero multiplied by anything is still zero.
If the schooling is a mess, understaffed, ignorant teachers, no discipline, etc. then S is 0. Zero multiplied by anything is still zero.
To get the best outcome you need great parenting AND great schooling 100% x 100% = 100%

I would say the family has the greater influence. At least in the majority of cases.

I agree with you @Nomore_lockout. But the schools get the blame for everything.
Nice analogy there @LuckyGuy.

Yes our society as a whole is great at dodging any personal responsibility. Always place the blame on some other person or institution.

Right? Like it’s the state’s job to raise these children.

ffs

Most of what I learned I learned from tv. Not just cartoons, but science and news as well.

I think both schools and parenting play a part in the child’s development, and I agree that schools take way too much blame for children’s bad behavior. But one important factor that is usually overlooked and ironically it’s on my college’s textbook is the child’s own effort. I used to teach an extremely troubled child. Despite my best effort, he just didn’t cooperate and would never take me seriously. At first I thought it was because of the parents, but then I got to talk with my boss who got into contact with the kid’s family, and she revealed to me that the parents were really nice people and took good care of their child. Now the child had no one to blame except for himself.

And then you occasionally hear about psychopaths whose family and education background revealed no dysfunction. Those creeps are just messed up in the head since they were born and no amount of parenting or education can help change them because they just don’t think the same way normal people do.

I think society is quick to blame something on a child’s wrongdoing. If it isn’t schools then it’s the parents. If it isn’t the parents then it’s something else like guns or violent video games. I agree that both schools and parents are important, but one sad fact is that you can’t force someone to behave if they refuse to. The child, with all the influence in their hand, has the ultimate power to decide how their life would turn out. And there is no telling which path they would choose and we have no power to control that.

In most cases the family, especially the parents, but everything counts.

I don’t say the parents have very strong influence to necessarily assign blame, it really depends what we are talking about. Also, how children behave does not necessarily reflect their parents; how adult children behave is more of a reflection usually.

As far as blaming the school system for people not being able to cook, I don’t think that’s the point of wanting Home Ec in school. The point is so many families don’t teach it to their children.

Grammar I have to assume family and community matter a ton, because I’d be really upset to find out teachers have such poor grammatical skills, although it’s possible I guess. Although, there are children across America who have parents who barely speak English, so all of their English is school and community and their English can be great. Maybe no English is better than poorly spoken English.

It doesn’t matter weather the parents are involved, under educated or whatever as each influence changes the perception and therefore goals of the child.

Example: Poor parents who had limited education or done at all due to looking and surviving on farms skills etc. could very well produce in a child the gumption to get an Education on his own .

Look back on Grandparents, parents life and one will see hardships endured and skills developed regardless of education.
They simply survived and placed food on the table for generations after.

I subbed for one teacher who left notes of instructions all over the class room. I was horrified at how poorly written they were. Misspelling, grammar issues. I don’t know who would have hired him.

@Dutchess_III I subb occasionally at my center. And I come across some classes that are just horrible. The class I currently teach used to belong to another teacher, and when I first came they were just clueless about their lessons. Took me a while to rebuild the entire class. You are not alone here.