As a teacher, friends and parents ask me all the time about what high school is like and what to expect for their student. While it is certainly important to be ready academically, I think one of the most important things a parent can do is to establish good habits.
One thing I tell parents of young children all the time is to ensure that their student pay attention to their penmanship. People say all the time, “I have the worst handwriting”. As a high school teacher, I read a lot of papers and tests. Don't get me wrong, I can read bad handwriting and I don't usually penalize a student for it. But let me say this, I would sure rather read a nicely written paper, wouldn't you? In the past I have graded standardized tests, handwritten essays, sometime with atrocious writing. Often it was very hard to get past the scrawl and appreciate the content. I'm human, yes; I do form a first impression of a student's ability and effort level based on their first homework assignment. So my suggestion, if you can, encourage good handwriting at an early age; model it for your kids.
Another suggestion I have for parents is to establish a bedtime and stick to it, all the way through high school. It breaks my heart when I hear good kids telling me that they were up until 3 AM working on a paper. Of course, there are many reasons for this. Did the student have other commitments like work or athletic practice and began working late? Did the student mess around on the computer until midnight and then hit the books? Or maybe the student was given the assignment a week ago and chose to wait until the last night to cram in a week's worth of work. Establishing a bedtime might hopefully accomplish a few things.
- Your student will be more alert and focused in the morning and all day. Who can concentrate on 3 hours of sleep?
- Your student might learn better time management and perhaps start that paper on the first night it's assigned and continue on subsequent nights. If you finish it the night before, do you have time to proofread, ask the teacher for clarification, or check your facts?
- Finally, enforcing a bedtime will send the message; you need to get your work done first. If it doesn't get done by bedtime, there will be consequences.
Start with the bedtime early on. If the kid is still working, send them to bed anyway. A few late or unfinished assignments won't ruin a kid, but the habit of staying up late night after night just might. Is it weird that a teacher would tell you to do this? I tell my students all the time. Go to bed! You are worthless otherwise!
Lastly, always encourage your student to talk to their teacher, don't always do it for them. Insist that they talk to the teacher about make up work, extra credit work or questions on assignments. Younger children may have social concerns Find an email for you kid's teachers. Most teachers love email from students and will happily respond to questions this way. It is VERY difficult to address a bunch of students personal needs when you are trying to get class started; email is a great way for a teacher to answer on their own time. Suggest to students that they talk to a teacher after class, or after school. Teachers can be anxious before class, in the business world, before class is like you before your presentation or meeting. We like to focus! Students sense this and are sometimes discouraged by the response they get to their general question, “what did I miss yesterday or can I do extra credit?” Teachers want to address these questions but not when 27 other kids are bouncing in their seats.
These are suggestions that could be started in kindergarten. If habits are in place when they are young, it's a lot easier to maintain them, as kids get older. Of course all kids, teachers, schools and lifestyles are different. Maybe you can find a way to make my suggestions work for your family. Good Luck!
