With the first semester's end fast approaching in our nation's middle and high schools, it is not too late for parents to take affirmative action to ensure their child's school progress. Far too many parents think they are too busy to check on their child's success or lack of it, and depend on the school to notify them if there is a problem. In other words, these detached parents send their kids off to school expecting the teachers and staff to babysit them, teach them what they need to know, and only contact the parents if their kid is involved in a school shooting.
OK, that's a little hyperbole. However, relying on the school to provide a timely notification of missed classes, minor behavior issues, or socialization problems could be folly. Quite frankly schools have enough to do to try to teach today's kids without having to also track down working parents to inform them that "Justin" or "Bethany" has missed a class or two.
Schools posit that they want parental involvement, but often that is window dressing. A parent wanting to be involved may have to push through some barriers to find what, if any, problems exist. Remember that it is your obligation to be involved, and therefore also your right.
Skipping one class may not indicate anything. Or it may indicate the beginning of what could be a pattern. Knowing about it the same day or the next allows the parent to ask their child about the absence. A "progress report" sent home mid-semester may, if it isn't intercepted at the mailbox by the student, give a clue to problems but often it may be too late to do much about it. The classroom instruction for those two or 10 absences is lost forever.
Parents must make contact as soon as possible after the beginning of a semester with a reliable person that they can check with at least weekly. They must co-opt a teacher, a counselor, or a vice-principal and let him or her know that they will be checking frequently but also that they want to be called immediately for the slightest thing involving their child.
Parents will find that with minimal effort, they can really effect their child's ability to be successful in school. Judicious parental advocacy can make a difference.
OK, that's a little hyperbole. However, relying on the school to provide a timely notification of missed classes, minor behavior issues, or socialization problems could be folly. Quite frankly schools have enough to do to try to teach today's kids without having to also track down working parents to inform them that "Justin" or "Bethany" has missed a class or two.
Schools posit that they want parental involvement, but often that is window dressing. A parent wanting to be involved may have to push through some barriers to find what, if any, problems exist. Remember that it is your obligation to be involved, and therefore also your right.
Skipping one class may not indicate anything. Or it may indicate the beginning of what could be a pattern. Knowing about it the same day or the next allows the parent to ask their child about the absence. A "progress report" sent home mid-semester may, if it isn't intercepted at the mailbox by the student, give a clue to problems but often it may be too late to do much about it. The classroom instruction for those two or 10 absences is lost forever.
Parents must make contact as soon as possible after the beginning of a semester with a reliable person that they can check with at least weekly. They must co-opt a teacher, a counselor, or a vice-principal and let him or her know that they will be checking frequently but also that they want to be called immediately for the slightest thing involving their child.
Parents will find that with minimal effort, they can really effect their child's ability to be successful in school. Judicious parental advocacy can make a difference.
1 comment:
Blaming the schools for students behavorial problems is just shreking your responsibility as a parent. You gave birth - stand up and take responsibility to follow up. It is no wonder kids have a hard time learning about responsibility... they watch their parents duck it too often.
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