Is Your Child Having Trouble in School?

Many parents spend a great deal of time and energystudents are able to thrive and excel in their learning.
trying to ensure that their children have the bestFor those students the school environment meets the
education possible. Parents help with homework,needs of their learning styles and motivates them
provide many extra-curricular opportunities and keep intowards success in their educational experience. The
touch with the teachers and school in order to helpschool system is not bad for these students, it is good.
their child to be successful. However when all is saidHowever the very nature and structure of the school
and done, it is the child who needs to be able to learnsystem means it is only able to meet the needs of
and pass the curriculum requirements.some styles of learning, and personality traits of its
Some parents themselves may have sailed throughstudents. For a fairly large number of students to get
Did you know that the school system is only able tothrough a school day is an achievement in itself.
meet 50% of student learning needs?Intelligence and motivation to learn are not the issue for
That's right! - only 50% of the student population is inthem, but the school structure and environment itself.
an environment at school which enables them to beAn example of such a student was Albert Einstein. He
successful learners.found school incredibly boring, as the tools of learning in
The reason for this is not because of bad teachers.those days were to do with repeating and learning by
There are many excellent, dedicated teachers inrote. He learnt more from the reading he did outside of
schools, whose life's work and passion is to educateschool, and talking with interesting people he met, than
their students to the best of their ability. Teachersfrom school itself. He spent most of the time in his
want to see their students successful, that is why theyclasses day dreaming. The system had no room for
have given years to training and service. It is not thecreativity and imagination, or allowing him to learn about
fault of the teachers that many students do not reachwhat interested him. There was no provision in his
their potential in learning.school system for people who thought differently.
It is not a result of bad parenting.their own schoolMany students today, whose learning styles are not
experience and been successful in the academiccatered for in the school system, are prone to be
requirements for graduation, and gone on to furtherdismissed or labeled as lazy, unfocused, and
education. Isn't it reasonable to expect that theirunintelligent, disorganized, ADHD, or have a learning
children would follow the same path and achieve gooddisability. School for many of these students is an
grades? For some children, yes it is a reasonableendurance test, which some fail. The school
expectation, and many, of course, do follow in theirexperience can devastate their self confidence and
parent's footsteps. However this may not be true forself esteem, due to their inability to conform or adapt
every child, even in the same family. I, myself, was ato the expectations of the system, and those around
good student, enjoyed my school experience and Ithem. Yet these same students in later life can
love to learn. I went on to become a teacher for overbecome very successful because of their
twenty years in the school system, was a Principal ofentrepreneurial spirit, their creativity, their ability to think
two schools, and successfully pioneered anoutside of the box, and view the world from a
independent school. All my three children are intelligentdifferent perspective.
and have been given equal opportunities with regard toIf your child is having trouble at school, it may not be a
their education. Out of the three, only one is following inreflection your parenting, their teacher or the school.
my footsteps.Your child may be trying to learn in an environment
Was I less diligent with two of my children, didn't I helpthat conflicts with his natural aptitude and learning style.
them? Didn't I give them the support they needed toFor your child it could be like trying to learn to swim in
be successful at school? Of course I did! Were theiran ocean of sand! Look outside of 'normal'
teachers uncaring and unsupportive of their education?expectations, and see the situation through the eyes of
Not at all! The problem is as parents we can't go toyour child. You may be surprised!!! .........and why not do a
school for them. Sometimes it seems parenting wouldlittle research in to the school experience of Albert
be easier if we could!Einstein, and many other notable figures in our history?
Is the school system bad?I think you might see things from a different
There are many excellent schools, in which someperspective.