Parenting encompasses a lot of aspects that revolve around the life of a child, such as their upbringing, mental health, well-being, feeding, decision-making, academics, and several others to mention but a few, and in order to brood out the best version of our child, we must be ready to give it our all to make sure they've got a bright future. Unfortunately, not all parents see things that way, and today I'd love to share an experience with you that hopefully will help us parents not leave the academic aspect of our wards to teachers alone.
Although I'm a teacher by profession, today I'll speak to you not just as a teacher but also as a parent who wants the best for my kids, not just in providing for their basic needs but also in their academics, Making sure they're performing well in their academics, helping them in any aspect they fall short in, and making sure all they do after school isn't just play but to at least have a few hours to revise what they've been taught in school.
A few days ago, as a class teacher, I had to give out results to each student in my class. Since it's the third and final term, the results also indicate if a child is promoted to the next class or will repeat the same old class. Like I said in this post, we were informed not to give out the results to any child whose parents didn't accompany them to the school for the collection of the results. Unfortunately, despite that, not all parents still showed up, so I didn't give out the results to those who came alone.
Among those whose parents didn't show up was a boy who failed and would have to repeat the same class. It was painful knowing that such a boy would repeat because he was a decent boy, but unfortunately, his parents don't have any time for him, not for his academic performance. As we all know as parents, it's essential that we at least know the class teacher of our child, if not all of their subject teachers; unfortunately, the reverse was the case for this boy because his parents never showed up to the school since the very first day they enrolled him.
We usually have three terms in one section before a child will be promoted to the next class, and in each term the students undergo examinations. Each term, I noticed the boy was underperforming in some core subjects like English and math, and I called the attention of the subject teachers to it. Of which both tried to give the child such special treatment just so he'd understand better, unfortunately such can't be easily done because it's a public school and a single teacher would have to teach nothing less than 600 students daily.
Regardless of that, I insisted they do something about it, but just so the parent can be aware of the situation, I didn't give the boy his results with the hope that when they realize he didn't come home with it after examination, it'll prompt them to come, yet they didn't show up, so I requested the phone number of the parent from the school authorities and I called them to let them know I'll love to see them. Both told me their businesses require their attention, and they won't be able to come to the school.
Without exaggerating, I called them nothing less than 10 times within the space of 6 months, and I was getting the same response, so I decided to explain the situation to them over the phone, so they can at least hire a private tutor to lecture the child after school, so he'll improve on those students he falls short on. All that advice fell on deaf ears, and I never saw them for once, even on the day of the collection of the finals results that determine their promotion.
The bottom line of the story was that the boy found a way of tricking me to get his result, as he begged someone else's parents to represent his, which I gave them, and he went home with his result. When he got home and the real parents saw the awful results, they followed him to school and were looking for every means to get the boy promoted; they even tried to bribe me with some cash so I could alter the results for the boy to get promoted.
I see them as a shame to Parenthood and think they really need to do better and show up for their child in critical times and conditions. Assuming they've taken all of my calls and advice seriously, I believe the boy won't be in this situation now because a private tutor would have concentrated solemnly on him and helped him understand whatever seemed hard for him to decipher in a class of 80 students.
Aside from a private tutor or teacher, we parents also need to go through our child's school books, make sure they do their assignments, help or guide them in difficult ones, and also pay both the child and their teachers a surprise visit to know how well the child is performing in school. With all of these, the child will know education is a priority because you, as a parent, don't joke about it with them.
It's funny when I see parents who believe there's nothing to do with their child's education since they already pay for the child's school fee. Such shouldn't be the case; we don't because we've paid for the project for our house and then don't monitor the contractor to know if they're doing a good job, using the right materials or not, and several other things.
Neither will we abandon our sick loved ones who fall ill after taking them to the hospital and paying the medical bill. We won't, because we've paid the bill, leave them in the care of the doctors and nurses till they're discharged; instead, we stick with them, check up on them, and help in every possible way at every given time. If we don't do that with doctors after paying bills, why should we do that with our children and teachers?
As parents, we shouldn't lessen our focus on the academic performance of our child, as our duties are as important as the duties of the teachers, and that way the child can become more serious and have someone to fall back on whenever they need help with their academy. I wish everyone of us all the best and pray that our children excel in life.
NOTE: ALL PHOTOS ARE MINE.
Thanks for your time, haves wonderful weekend ahead.