Back-to-school activity involves all the preparations of a major holiday. The shopping, the planning and the conversations all center on the child’s need to get off to a great start.
We so want our children to do well. We buy clothes that make them feel good about themselves, we make sure they have everything on that school supply list, and we take them to visit school and meet the new teacher.
We are reassuring and positive about the new school year. We attend to details. There will be no confusion about which bus to take or who will be there to greet them when they get home. We are good at this stuff; we are experienced and know the school game.
The problem is we sometimes run out of steam as the school year wears on. Things come up to distract us from that initial supercharged focus on our children and their education. It is only human to get a little tired and less eager once the school year has become routine.
How can you keep your interest in your child’s schooling fresh and enthusiastic? Your best resource is your children. Really, you just have to ask, and you will have timely updates on what is going on in the classroom. The way to make this an effective system is to have a regularly scheduled time for school talk, a conversation just about school. Make it a Jeopardy game where the children prepare the “answers” and you have to guess the “question.” No child will sit long for an interrogation so your best bet is to make these regular chats entertaining.
As you learn about classroom projects or field trips, make a point of volunteering to help out. You want to be the parent who is willing to offer your time. Besides keeping up with the classroom activities, you need to be current on new concerns facing school districts. You want to be the parent who knows the scoop, who is informed and can converse on topics such as core curriculum and high stakes testing.
Do your research on these topics online and then show up (there is an old saying that says, “showing up is 90 percent of our responsibility in life”) at PTA meetings and school board meetings. Of course you are busy, but you will be amazed at what you can learn by just being in attendance at these meetings. Then, when you get brave enough, ask questions. Even the dumbest question you can think of because it will be well worth your while.
Test your knowledge with these Jeopardy “answers” and see if you know the question:
This London-based company has a $32.1 million contract with New York to provide testing assessment of our children.
This private corporation, with profits in the billions, is known to design tests with typos, ambiguous questions, and questions with two right answers.
This education giant will never provide specific results on your child’s test performance. Results will be vague and generic; completed test booklets will never be shared with you, and will never be seen by the classroom teacher, the principal, or even the superintendent.
And the question for all three answers is: Who is Pearson?
For more information, email [email protected].
Felicia Bordick and her colleagues, Carol Smith and Joyce Thomas, are authors of “Kitchen Table Time: Recipes for School Success.” Please feel free to contact Felicia Bordick with comments, questions, or suggestions at [email protected].