I remember when I was younger how much I enjoyed school, well at least during elementary school. I always brought home pretty decent grades and they were consistent. One A, a couple of B’s and maybe one C in there. The C was usually for my behavior because apparently I talked way too much. I also had pretty good test scores too. So school life was pretty good. However, that was it, school life. When I would go home from school there was no additional learning or education. Only occasionally when some teachers required that our parents would check our homework, but no real additional learning time at home. It really wasn’t a big deal to me because in my head school was for learning and home was for home stuff. Also where was my mom going to find the time to help me with addition learning when she was a single, working mom of 5? There was just no time in her day to get all of this done. She basically had to rely on her faith that we were getting good teachers and we understood how important education is to our family.
Well I’m not going to say my mom didn’t do a great job. In fact I think I turned out pretty well. I ended up graduating not only from high school, but college and have been able to find jobs to help support my family. But now that I have children I too instill in them the importance of education and always want to make sure my children have all they may need when it comes to it. Even my husband is big on this and personally knows the opportunities he has are directly from the choice to go to college. When our oldest was younger I remember getting so mad at the school system. He would always bring home B’s and A’s but when I would check his work he couldn’t write complete sentences. Not only that but he was using made up slang words in his sentences. I couldn’t believe his grades were not reflecting his work accurately. From that point on we made a conscious decision to be involved in our children’s education. That decision was an excellent decision because now he’s in high school and he’s making the honor roll every quarter.
Well lately things have been a little slack in that department. Our little one loves school and when he comes home he always wants to play with his flash cards or “do his numbers” as he would say. I have no clue what he really means by that. And even though the oldest in bringing home good grades, we haven’t checked his work to make sure his grades are truly reflecting his efforts. But when did this slackness towards our children’s education start? I mean I didn’t even notice that we weren’t on top of things until my husband brought it up. Well, I did notice a little bit. I was looking through little man’s note book and saw assignments, but no work done and I start to think “OMG is he getting homework?” But when my husband came home from work and mentioned that we are not as involved as we used to be in our children’s education (that same week) it really hit me. Of course I was a little defensive when he mentioned it. I mean come on, really? I’m working, growing a business, cooking dinner, doing the laundry (and whatever else chores) and now you want to tell me where I’m slacking, really? But as I was saying these things to myself, I realized that these are the same reasons my mom may have had for not being on top of our education. And to be honest, these are valid reasons. There is always so much to do with so little time and buying our children a leap frog will not replace that one on one learning time that they need from us to keep them ahead or even on track in school.
There are too many times when I hear people blame the teachers for their child’s lack of education. I have heard time and time again “Well what is the teacher doing if my child is not getting it” or “this teacher obviously can’t teach” or “they are jealous of my child”. These are all excuses that we throw out there when we don’t want to look in the mirror and realize that we are not doing our part in this thing called education. And if we do look in the mirror we come with reasons (notice I say reasons when we are the one to blame) to justify our lack of commitment. Reasons like what I mentioned above, too tired, and not enough time. But the truth is, we are subconsciously solely depending on our educational system to teach our children and this is not what we should do. If the kids aren’t getting the reinforcement they need at home to continue with what is being taught in school then what would happen. Well I know, my child will probably end up like me and my husband, and although we are not doing badly, we certainly want more for our children. Our children should always take the knowledge, experiences and opportunities afforded by us to move their life one step higher.
So from this point on, there will be no excuses. I will implement learning time with my little one and seek the help my oldest may need to do better in school. I say “I” but in fact it will be my husband and I doing this. We are both aware of where we have fallen short, why we have fallen short and now the next step is to implement strategies to keep us from fallen short again and providing our children with all that they need to succeed.
