Time for back to school jitters. Kids wonder about their teachers, their friends and what to do on the playground. Teachers wonder about their students, their schedule and new parents. It is a stressful time for everyone. I remember the feelings. It is exciting.
This is going to be a stressful couple of months because of the election. People have very strong beliefs and although they don't think their kids listen, they do. They take their parents' concerns to the classroom and sometimes the playground. It is true that during an election year, there are often "fights" on the playground based on political issues.
Adults say things and kids take it very seriously. It is all or nothing with them. If you do not believe like them, you are the enemy.
Teachers are very aware of this and have to difuse some of these arguments. Teachers cannot have political opinions in the classroom. That is good because in younger grades there are three sources of truth. Mom, Dad and the teacher. When they disagree, the child is very confused about who to support. It may be nothing to you but it can cause a lot of stress in the child. Sometimes the child will not want to go to school just to remove that stress. Fight or flight. Adults can sort things out. Kids, not so much.
And, believe it or not, when a child does not want to go to school, it is not always the school that is causing the problem. The more cooperative the teacher and parent is, the more positive the child will be about school.
Have a great year.
Already have a parent who told me that they don't "do" homework at their house. She said, "I don't tell you how to run your classroom, don't tell me how to run my home". I've never understood the "us" versus "them" attitude - why create an issue of bad shared custody? Why undermine the other most important influence in your child's daily life?
ReplyDeleteI agree. Have had parents who thought there should be no homework, more homework, harder homework, easier homework....I always found it best for the child to try to work with whatever opinion their parents had. After all, the child is the important element. I had one child who was heavy into gymnastics. A contender so to speak. Homework was difficult because of her training schedule. I made a deal with the child. She could tell me when the homework was too much as long as her learning didn't suffer. It worked. She was a stellar student as well as gynnist. I do believe there are more important things in life than homework. I tried never to give too much, never to punish for unfinished homework and never to insist on my way or the highway. There is always more than one way to do something. The trick is to find the way that works best for the educational and emotional growth of the child.
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