Shocked and Amused

A teacher's take on parenting advice...

So, I was rifling through the "parenting" section of the self-help books stall at a market last week. After all, if I am intending on writing an education blog for parents, I better check out my paper-based competition so-to-speak. Well I can say that I was left somewhere between shocked and amused.

I saw “The Challenging Child” with the tagline, “As parents, we are not the cause…”. The cover of “The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems” caught my eye with its photo of a hip cap-wearing baby. I came across “Kid Wrangling”, “100 Ways to Calm the Crying” and “Mother Mysteries” in amongst other so-called ‘women’s issues’ books like “There’s More To Life Than Sex And Money”, “Dream It: Do It”, “Calm For Life”, “Are Men Necessary”, “Taming Your Alpha Bitch”  and “Sometimes Hearts Have To Break” (let's not even mention "A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality").

By contrast, ‘books for blokes’ included “How To Get Rich”, “Apprentice to Business Ace”, “Man Maintenance” along with “The Everything Beer Book” and “Official Rules of Card Games”. By this stage I’m feeling slightly depressed at the calibre of information available to parents. Not to pass judgment on the quality of the abovementioned books, nor am I commenting on self-help-type books generally. However, where’s the information for parents about how to help their struggling mathematician with his homework or the advice on what to ask your daughter’s teaching in a parent-teacher meeting if you are concerned about her reading, or how to decode your child’s jargon-packed, politically-correct-to-a-fault school report?

This probably isn’t an education blog for teachers, full of jargon, spruiking the latest teaching fads. It is for parents, for one purpose – I want your child can get the most out of their school years, thanks to your deeper understanding of how children learn and how teachers teach!

You place your trust in us teachers, leaving your children in our care for hours a day. Do you actually know what they do all that time? And if you do happen to know what they do, do you know why? Hopefully I can, as a teacher, share what I know with you so that you can most effectively work in partnership with your child’s teacher and school to really make the most of this important stage in their lives! It would be my pleasure to be part of that partnership.

Be sure to leave your comments and questions.

- Teachling

(Image from http://toonclips.com/600/9222.jpg)