“The newspaper editor fired him because he had no good ideas. A pastor employed him to draw canvassing material for the church. He was allowed to stay in the backyard of a mouse infested church garage. One of those Mice inspired this man so much that Mickey Mouse was born and Walt Disney was revealed to the world”
Walt Disney was able to learn something worth even from the mouse infected garage, which the sophisticated infra structures of our schools at times fail to do. Society needs responsible adults with creative ideas and diverse talents, not just test taking skills. Does our education help our children make a living meaningfully? Do our schools really consider education as an integral preparation towards facing a reality called LIFE? Is this education, the only responsibility of Teachers? Can we blame the social distracters like Social Media networks, Video Games, the internet, Mobile texting and other virtual realities that steal away our valuable presence with our kids?
We need Partnership in education with the Parents that would enable the educational process effective and collaborative and thus meet the expectations of Parents as well as understand the struggles of Teachers in achieving the expected outcome. In this very important partnership, we need certain set of roles to take upon ourselves.
1. Give more time to your Children:
Spare time in your busy routine for your children. If you keep ignoring them, it will make them feel irresponsible and thus lose interest in study. Ask them daily “what they studied? What did they learn? Help them in their studies, if possible.
2. Keep Watch on children’s activities:
Have watch on the daily utilizing of their energy and time in unnecessary activities. Have watch on the amount of time they spend on T.V., Video games and Internet. Never suspect your children but have a watch in such a way that they feel that you are for them at anytime.
3. Don’t over-schedule your child:
Be judicious about how much you let or urge your child for extra curricular activities to supplement school. If you engage the child with too many supplement activities, it can quickly become a joyless race from one thing to another.
4. Control your time with Idiot box:
I’m not sure whether to call T.V. as Idiot box but it definitely controls the agenda of your child. Though it has numerous educational programmes, yet it doesn’t allow the mind to imagine and think. Create unstructured time with books, toys, crafts and friends (real friends and not their virtual ones from facebook) to be in charge of their own agenda.
5. Limit Media Exposure:
Turn off the T.V. and the iPod when your child does homework. Keep in mind that if you watch T.V. when your child can’t, it may backfire because the child will create hatred towards learning.
6. Don’t wash the dirty linen before your child:
In Finland, Italy and Japan, kids perform better in school because teachers are more respected by the entire culture. That doesn’t make the teachers infallible. Settle your difference of opinions with the Teachers in private. A child can’t really learn from a teacher if the Parents don’t respect the teacher and a teacher can’t really teach a child if s/he thinks the parents don’t respect him.
7. The Teacher can’t expect that all children will adapt to her/him. The teacher has to reach out to the child and the child has to learn the patterns and behaviors of the teacher. From both sides, we need to realize that we are dealing with human persons with strengths and limitations. Teachers are the second Parents of the children entrusted to them. Make this relationship trustworthy and worth remembering.
I was reminded of the rubber bands that we use in day to day life. They come in different sizes and different colours and different shapes, but they all work on the same principle: STRETCH. In order to have an effective partnership in education, like rubber bands, Teachers and Parents have to stretch out themselves to be effective in their roles. Just being there doesn’t serve the purpose. Teachers have to stretch beyond their routine teaching pedagogy and Parents from their conventional thinking that education is teacher’s job. We need to leave the safe harbor in order to sail and that’s why ships are made for. We need to break the comfort zones in order to be effective. In order to be effective in our Partnership in educating our children, we need to be little more, do little more.
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