Chapter Thirteen: School
Most children seem to like school most of the time. The one thing that’s really bad about a lot of schools today is that parents spend too much time there. Helicoptering and mucking things up. Unless your child is having trouble, is a bully or is being bullied I think you should stay out of the fray. If, for example, you have already been a Class Mom once, sign up for yoga at the Y or bead shoes in your off-hours. Do, however, demand Phonics. Scream and stomp about for Phonics. Start a petition and don’t take no for an answer. While you’re at it, beg for grammar. Once I asked a teacher why she didn’t spend more time teaching grammar. She said because the children found it “boring” to learn and she found it “boring” to teach. Unless you want to spend the rest of your child’s high school career overhearing, “We would have drank more, but the police came.”, lobby for “boring”. Often the following things are also “boring”: working, working two jobs, paying bills, driving carpools, marriage, in-laws, illness, jail, and not being able to work two jobs.
For young children, school playgrounds are mini-life. They don’t know it but you do. It’s a good place to learn about sharing, manners, including rather than excluding, and standing up for yourself and those who don’t yet know how. Tell your child even if he isn’t the biggest guy on the playground he has an obligation to look out for others. He’ll feel big.
