について Usage and Honorifics Subject

Question

I have the following sentence to translate.

父母や教師達は、もっとよく子どもの教育について、考えていただきたいものだ。

So far I have the following.

Parents and teachers "do something" better with children's education and they want the 
children to think. 

I am having trouble understanding which つく verb is being used.

And I also am not sure who has the desire in the sentence. I think it's the parents and teachers as they have the subject marker. But then the いただきたい is weird because of the honorifics. Did the subject of the sentence change?

Answer 1

について is a fixed expression meaning "regarding, concerning, ..." (here "about" also works) and derives from 就く or 付く, although it is usually written in かな.

Answer 2

もらいたい・いただきたい's usage is waving these days. It originally takes dative に for the marker of the agent, but people have started to use nominative as well, as a result, the situation is being more or less confusing. i.e. 父母や教師達には…考えていただきたいものだ → 父母や教師達は…考えていただきたいものだ

Answer 3

From a grammatical point of view I think it could be rephrased as:

(私は、)父母や教師達には、もっとよく子どもの教育について、考えていただきたい{ものだ/と思う}。

-私は = I = the subject for 考えていただきたい
-父母や教師たちに = for parents and teachers = the subject for 考える
-もっとよく = more seriously <--- modifies 考える.
-子どもの教育について = about children's education <--- modifies 考える.
-考えていただきたい* = the humble form of 考えてもらいたい = (I) want (someone) to think. >> I want parents and teachers to think (more seriously about...).
-ものだ >> goo辞書#5-㋑ emphasis　

*いただく is the humble form ([謙譲語]{けんじょうご}) of もらう.

Answer 4

(This is supplementary to Chocolate's answer.)

If you put everything together then we get:

I would like parents and teachers to think much more about their childrens' education.

Note that:

• いただきたい makes the sentence from the viewpoint of the writer.

• Parents and teachers are the topic (marked by は): that is to say, the focus of the speaker/writers utterance.

• ものだ indicates the sincerity or importance the writer places on the statement.