Parents can help with teacher’s great burdens

Education, now perhaps more than any other time in history, is essential for the welfare and happiness of our children. Our society must not waste this once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to invest in our children’s future. Classroom teachers, school counselors, administrators, and other personnel are responsible for providing the tools and environment that make it possible for our children to learn. These educators are under a great deal of pressure to prepare the students to pass academic achievement tests and manage the children’s behavior which is sometimes difficult. Additionally, school personnel often have to teach basic social skills such as empathy, respect, tolerance, etc.

Many of these educators suffer from work overload, lack of appropriate reward and recognition for their work, unrealistic and/or idealistic expectations from those they serve or those they work with, pervasive feelings of lack of control in their profession, lack of positive feedback from students and parents, working environments that are overcrowded, outdated or in high crime areas, and personal pressures produced by the need to take care of their own families.

Often we expect educators to have no person problems, no worries or concerns outside of their teaching.

Parents can assist those responsible for educating their children by doing some of the following things:

• Increase efforts at home to teach such virtues as self discipline, delaying gratification, striving for personal responsibility and being compassionate and empathetic to those less fortunate than themselves.

• Develop the child’s respect for authority, rules, and personal boundaries. Additionally, respect for other people’s property and non-violent means of conflict resolution should be emphasized by parents at home.

• Provide the proper environment for home study which is free from distraction. Also, by assisting the child when appropriate with homework and special assignments, the parent can placed the child’s education in a healthy perspective.

• Show support for teachers by becoming involved in school activities such as PTA, homeroom parents, and field trip chaperons.

• Encourage the child to put a high priority on education and take advantage of the opportunities that the school offers in both classroom studies and extracurricular activities.

• Give teachers need more positive recognition. Help encourage higher salaries, increased benefits, and increased public support.

Let’s all give educators the credit and help they deserve.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 2002