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Start the Year Right: Routines and Respect
By mstrohm | September 5, 2010
The new school year is springing forth like a new seedling. And just like a plant, the right ingredients will help your child grow in a healthy way. In order to assist you to create an atmosphere for your child to grow and thrive this school year, I offer some observations from the school’s point of view.
The first suggestion/ingredient is to set daily routines for your child, which should include talking with your child about the day, checking their homework folders and helping them with any questions they have on homework. Remember you are the most important and influential person in your child’s life. Your daily interest and assistance with their school responsibilities helps them understand that learning is important.
Equally important is to treat your child’s teacher with courtesy and respect. If your child comes home with any story that does not place the teacher in a good light, check the story out with the teacher. It is amazing how quickly an email or phone message can straighten things out. If you have a problem or a concern, approach your child’s teacher as a professional that really does care about your child. As an educator for more than 20 years, both as a principal and a teacher, I have been amazed at how often parents do not respect their child’s teacher by giving them the courtesy of the benefit of the doubt. Instead of parent and teacher coming together to help the student, some parents approach teachers with anger and accusations. When you show respect, your child’s teacher will show you respect and will be able to spend their energy working with you to find a solution.
Another suggestion is to take concerns and observations made by your child’s teacher seriously. Teachers are not just looking for children’s faults, they have hundreds and thousands of hours observing and teaching children, when they come to you with a possible learning issue or behavior concern it should be seriously considered. Allow teachers to use their energy to cooperatively address concerns with you.
A child’s school experiences are important, there is no unimportant year for your child. If your child has issues with homework or behavior, your reinforcement at home and your maintaining a good relationship with your child’s teacher will help him or her respond more quickly and get the most out of their school year.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
September 6th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Hi Mark, Would it be ok if I put a link to your column on my school web page? I think parents would love it as they often ask me parnting advice. Alyce