Students and Teachers...and now Parents too?

Electronic grade books are no longer a nifty gadget imagined for the future. Students and parents now have the opportunity to check their attendance history or grades from any class. This allows the student to be aware of where they are grade point average and how they are ranking on a personal record. At first the thought of this was overwhelming and a new idea I quickly shot down. However, as time has passed I have come to adore the idea of being on top of my grades and in touch with the teachers if an issue is present. 

Powerschool has been around long enough now to where I can easily operate and manage the site. After some time I have found some flaws with this electronic device. As a concerned student, I admit to having access to this website every day whenever I desire. Personally, I love this feature. I am able to keep tabs on my grades and follow up with every paper I ever hand in. But this site is also available to any parent. I believe this is where the issue arises. Some overprotective mentors take advantage of this opportunity and step over the boundary and abuse the system. 

With technology advancing at the rate it is, the ease of access is incredible. Parents can have notifications sent to their phone and any other device. This can lead to overbearing guardians to assume the best for their child and head strait for the teachers with any issue that becomes present on the students behalf. In a sense this could be a perfect system, but in other ways it completely reverses the point of having a Powerschool account.

I do believe that the students should be able to have access to these sites, but I think it is going too far to allow parents to have this same responsibility. Students should have the option to keep track of their grades as they please. The teachers put their papers into a grade book anyways, so putting them into an electronic file only seems to make sense. But this is a private thing and should be only kept between the student and teacher. Children on average spend five days a week in school! This is time spent away from parents and bonding with the administration. Granted all students do not bond with their teachers, but their profile should still be kept personal. This is a situation where the parents are out of the loop and not involved. 

I am not saying that students shouldn't develop a relationship with their parents and share their grades; however, I think it should be an option not a forced action. If a student has a personal relationship with their guardians they will talk about their grades somehow or another. Powerschool just gives them the chance to step over their bounds and hound the school system if a mistake is made. I find this website to have more negatives rather than positives. 

Powerschool is a brilliant resource for students and teachers. They can connect on this site and view the grade book at any moment. But that is where I find the issue, it should be between the students and the teachers. Creating a triangle of events by incorporating the parents is just asking for trouble.