The start of school is always a time of eager anticipation coupled with a pinch of nervousness. This year is no different, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it carries a greater degree of anxiety than usual. Teachers, parents, and students are cautiously optimistic, but lurking in the shadows is uncertainty about a virus yet to be tamed. Since March, life in general has been turned upside down by the virus, and everyone is ready to get back to normal. There is nothing that says normal quite as well as schools opening in the fall to rested students and teachers anxious to renew learning, friendships, and activities such as band and football. School galvanizes the community, and anything that threatens the institution of school and the traditions everyone has grown to expect and accept over the years is in no small part a recipe for catastrophe.
To head off potential problems, school educators have worked throughout the summer to develop a plan to ensure the safest and best learning environment possible. For the most part, they have worked with little guidance, but instead of throwing up their hands in frustration they have plodded ahead using the guidance available, their skills as problem solvers, and common sense to develop a plan conducive to the safety of the school community. As always, they have risen to the occasion to meet the needs of their students and teachers. What they need now is for the community to trust and believe the school district has done its best for everyone concerned. The greatest of plans come with glitches and no doubt the plans for this school year may face bumps along the way. However, with patience, understanding, common sense, and commitment to learning as the primary focus of school, school administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community can and must make this school year successful. In fact, the success of this school year will not depend on the unpredictability of the Coronavirus but rather on the school community working together despite it.
Back to School Advice for Parents
1. DO NOT bring politics into the schoolhouse! Teachers have enough to worry about without having to deal with the politics of the virus. If the school says students will wear masks and follow the teacher’s directives for social distancing in the classroom, be an ADULT and demand your children follow those guidelines;
2. DO NOT get caught in the trap of believing the teacher is OUT TO GET your child. Teachers have enough drama in their lives, especially this school year, without creating more by having a vendetta against your child, so take a pill and chill;
3. DO NOT speak negatively about your child’s teacher in front of your child. If your attitude toward the teacher is negative at home, there is a very good chance your child’s attitude toward the teacher will be negative at school;
4. DO NOT wait until the end of the nine weeks to get concerned about your child’s grades! Stay on top of what is happening in school from day one;
5. DO NOT leave communication entirely up to the teacher! It is as much the parent’s responsibility to communicate with the teacher as it is for the teacher to communicate with the parent. Do not assume that no news is good news! Pick up the phone and call the teacher or email the teacher and ask how your child is progressing in class;
6. DO NOT act like a foaming at the mouth raving lunatic if you are upset with the teacher. When you approach a teacher in attack mode, the teacher goes on the defensive, the school office calls for security, you lose credibility, nothing is resolved, and your child ends up the loser;
7. DO NOT be blind to RED FLAGS! If your child comes home day after day with no homework or saying they completed all their homework in class, that is a RED FLAG that should be verified with the teacher. If you ignore RED FLAGS, don’t be surprised to see less than satisfactory grades at the end of the grading period;
8. DO NOT allow activities such as ball practices, ball games, music lessons, dance or any other activities to become priorities over academics. The odds are your child will never be a college athlete or a professional athlete, but the odds are extremely high he/she will have to work for a living;
9. DO NOT believe your child is infallible. ALL children will lie and fall short of the glory of their parents! Therefore, before you take sides, listen to both sides; and
10. DO NOT do your child’s homework, report, or project for him/her! School assignments are about the child not the parent. You will not be branded a bad parent or disqualified for parent of the year if your child makes a bad grade! It is okay to be a resource for your child and point them in the right direction, but the actual work should be done by the student.
Communicating with teachers, being positive, staying on top of your child’s progress, looking at academics as the priority, and making your child responsible for his/her work are all expectations that every parent should have of their children. That is the rule for any school year, but it is even more important for parents to be involved in their child’s education during the pandemic school year of 2020-2021.
JL
©Jack Linton, August 17, 2020
I Don't Mean to Offend, but . . . . 