It is important to remember that your child’s education is a joint responsibility between the school, the child and you as a parent. It is unrealistic to expect, especially if your child is struggling to learn a particular skill, that the school will be able to magically resolve the issue.
Yes, schools should be putting in place programs that will be beneficial to your child. Yes, schools should be prepared to make the appropriate accommodations to ensure your child is able to fully access the curriculum, reach his or her full potential and clearly demonstrate knowledge.
However, children also need to accept responsibility for their own learning. They need to want to learn. They need to be prepared to persevere when the going gets tough and they need to be prepared to practise skills sufficiently until they reach a high level of automaticity.
Parents also share a responsibility for their children’s education. They need to accept that at times schools, because of funding and staffing issues, cannot provide the level of one-on-one support that an individual child might need to learn a particular skill or concept. Parents need to make themselves available to help their children practise the skills that they are learning at school and they need to ensure that their children are getting sufficient sleep so they can pay attention. Parents also need to be pro-active with their children’s education and if they feel that their child’s needs are not being fully met in the classroom environment, then they need to look outside the school system for other resources.
The challenge is to ensure that everyone is working together!
Click here if you are looking for a specialist literacy teacher to work with your child.