Parents as Educators

Schools are responsible for educating the students they enroll, but they are not the sole educators of children. Parents are educators too. The odds are that parents who value education and spend time with their children enrich their experience at school and also have children who are more successful in school. Parents who send their children to school and expect the school to "take care" of everything often have children who experience some sort of difficulty. This is especially true at the primary level.

Manners and respectful behavior should be taught at home, but reinforced in school. When it is not taught and children come into an environment where they are expected to be kind, polite and follow adult directives, but don't, there are problems. The problems are social and academic. The social impact is on their ability to build and maintain healthy relationships with peers and school adults. The academic impact is based upon their not following directions and/or acting in a way that gets them removed from the classroom. If they are removed, they are not in the class for lessons and assignments. If the teacher is constantly getting on to them, or they are disturbing the class, these students are interfering with the rights of other students to learn.

Parents have a responsibility to raise good citizens. Teaching and enforcing manners, rules, limits and respect for authority is how this is done.