[ti:Studying in the US: From 'In Loco Parentis' to 'Partnership' ]
[by:51voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English
[00:03.85]Education Report
[00:05.21]"In loco parentis" 
[00:06.88]is a Latin term meaning 
[00:09.61]"in the place of a parent." 
[00:12.04]It describes when someone else 
[00:15.54]accepts responsibility 
[00:17.71]to act in the interests of a child.
[00:20.95]This idea developed long ago 
[00:23.64]in British common law 
[00:26.01]to define the responsibility 
[00:28.60]of teachers toward their students. 
[00:31.43]For years, American courts upheld 
[00:35.28]in loco parentis in cases 
[00:37.61]such as Gott versus Berea College 
[00:40.94]in nineteen thirteen.
[00:43.07]Gott owned a restaurant off campus. 
[00:46.46]Berea threatened to expel students 
[00:49.99]who ate at places not owned by the school. 
[00:54.30]The Kentucky high court decided that 
[00:57.75]in loco parentis justified that rule.
[01:01.49]In loco parentis meant that male 
[01:04.68]and female college students usually 
[01:07.81]had to live in separate buildings. 
[01:10.75]Women had to be back at their dorms 
[01:14.03]by ten or eleven on school nights.
[01:17.22]But in the nineteen sixties, 
[01:20.00]students began to protest rules 
[01:23.04]and restrictions like these. 
[01:25.57]At the same time, 
[01:27.44]courts began to support students
[01:30.68]who were being punished for 
[01:32.76]political and social dissent.
[01:35.43]In nineteen sixty, 
[01:37.86]Alabama State College expelled six students 
[01:41.95]who took part in a civil rights demonstration. 
[01:45.74]They sued the school and won. 
[01:48.84]After that, 
[01:50.30]it became harder and harder 
[01:52.32]to defend in loco parentis.
[01:55.26]Students were not considered adults 
[01:58.54]until twenty-one. Then, 
[02:01.58]in nineteen seventy-one, 
[02:03.86]the twenty-sixth amendment 
[02:05.93]to the Constitution set the voting age 
[02:08.76]at eighteen. 
[02:10.34]So in loco parentis no longer really applied.
[02:14.93]Slowly, colleges began to treat students 
[02:18.48]not as children, but as adults. 
[02:21.97]Students came to be seen 
[02:23.99]as consumers of educational services.
[02:27.38]Gary Dickstein, 
[02:29.51]an assistant vice president 
[02:31.62]at Wright State University 
[02:33.90]in Dayton, Ohio,says 
[02:36.37]in loco parentis is not really gone. 
[02:39.96]It just looks different. 
[02:42.20]Today's parents, 
[02:43.72]he says, are often heavily involved
[02:46.55]in students' lives. 
[02:48.47]They are known as "helicopter parents"; 
[02:51.20]they always seem to hover 
[02:53.78]over their children.
[02:55.55]Gary Dickstein says these parents 
[02:58.68]are likely to question decisions, 
[03:01.62]especially about safety issues and grades. 
[03:06.02]They want to make sure 
[03:07.84]their financial investment 
[03:10.12]is not being wasted.
[03:12.39]As a result, 
[03:14.31]in loco parentis has been replaced 
[03:17.05]by what some administrators call a partnership 
[03:21.39]between the school and the family. 
[03:24.13]In fact, the orientation program 
[03:27.67]for new students at Virginia Tech this summer 
[03:31.45]includes a meeting for parents 
[03:34.08]called "Parents as Partners."
[03:37.53]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:41.73]Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. 
[03:45.58]Our Foreign Student Series is online at 51voa.com. 
[03:53.52]I'm Steve Ember.