How to Balance Your Decision to Raise Thinking Kids With Schools Requesting Over-Involved Parents
When my child was in the 2nd grade, and her teacher asked me why I didn’t sign her “homework” notebook, I told her it was because I was raising a “thinking” child.
It’s the same reason I didn’t:
- Go through my kids backpacks every day
- Pick out my child’s clothes
- Decide if they would bring lunch or buy lunch
- Make their lunch if they decided to bring it
- Sit in the classroom and “observe”
- Make a special trip to school to drop off a forgotten instrument, pair of cleats or science project
- Talk to the teacher about my child’s “performance” without my child present
- And 100 other decisions I made about my role in my child’s educational experience
I believed my primary job was to prepare my kids to leave home at 18 with the confidence necessary to make hundreds of decisions each day, the ability to overcome whatever challenge or obstacle they encounter and to do so with a sense of courage, curiosity and enthusiasm. That is how I defined my job as a mother. I made that decision when my first child came home from Kindergarten with a list of “expectations” the teacher had of me.… READ MORE ...
