Help! My Child's Schooling is Inadequate

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Help! My Child's Schooling is Inadequate

Steps Parents Can Take To Improve Their Kids' Education

Do you feel your child is not achieving his or her full potential in school? Don't get discouraged—there are many resources available that you and your child can use.

Life is filled with instances in which we are faced with situations where reality doesn't measure up to our expectations. This creates a swinging pendulum, which, as parents, we want to stall where we perceive our child's "thrive zone" to be.

When the issue at stake is our child's education, and the reality in question is defined by the school district where we live, our child's school, teacher, or even an overseas move, as parents we find that the pendulum's swinging margin shrinks, along with our ability to compromise.

Six years ago, that groping-at-the-pendulum, panicked feeling hit me hard when my family moved stock, barrel, kids and pet to Argentina. What had previously been a standard parenting preoccupation with school took on gigantic proportions while I imagined my kids as educational pariahs. Thoughts haunted me of the scholastic difficulties they'll encounter when our family eventually returns to the United States. More pressingly, I was worried about how they would learn anything at all in the context of a Hispanic culture and scholastic environment, when they couldn't even speak the language! I envisioned them falling way, way behind . . .

If you feel that your child is not achieving his or her full potential, don't get discouraged. There are many resources available that you and your child can use.

The first step is to focus on two facets:

Know Your Child: What works great for one child may not work for another. Even identical twins have different needs, and it's important for parents to work towards a situation that offers growth potential for each child. This can be difficult, particularly when there are budget limitations, and conflict between the time involved in meeting one child's needs, in the context of the family's overall needs.

Goals: Define your learning goals for your child. Cultures such as the Japanese rely heavily on exams and by rote studying, while American schools work intensely with research projects. Each culture teaches, some unquestioning obedience and discipline, while others attempt to raise questions and broaden a child's horizon. In each instant learning is accomplished, yet the definitions are diametrically different. Answering these questions will help you determine a sense of direction:

Do you wish your child to learn structures and discipline?
Do you want your child to develop a love for reading and writing?
Are you seeking to "grow" curiosity, cognitive thinking skills, and self-learning abilities?
Are you concerned with the grading system?
How do you rate your child's academic development?