From the Superintendent
Parents--A Child's Most Important Teacher
The Euclid City School District works hard every year to hire the best and brightest teachers we can find to educate our community's children. We offer critical professional learning opportunities every year to deepen and sharpen instructional skills and focus on curriculum. We evaluate teachers and administrators, and if necessary we develop improvement plans for employees so they will have the best tools and strategies to teach and lead at highly effective levels. We are good at what we do, and we pride ourselves on our philosophy of continuous improvement in all facets of our organization.
In spite of our skill and experience as professional educators, without a doubt, a child's most important, most effective, and most consistent teacher is his parent or guardian.
Learning begins at birth, a full five years before schools typically touch the life of a student. Those formative years are critical, and children whose parents read to and eventually with them, introduce them to life's many little facts, engage their imaginations, and encourage them while holding high expectations for behavior and respectful interactions with adults and other children give their children an immense advantage over those who rarely do such things. I have witnessed parents talking about grocery lists with their children, grandparents hiking with grandchildrent pointing out trees and animal life, and older siblings talking to their younger family members about school. All of these are choice learning opportunities that we can easily present children even without a single day of teacher training. Setting the tone for learning and building excitement for uncovering the mysteries of life establish a readiness for school that translates quickly into academic success.
As students grow through elementary school years and into secondary education, there is still much to do as a parent or guardian to assure the best opportunity for children. Too often, parents give the impression that their responsibility for educating their children stops at the school house door. Nothing could be further from the truth. A partial list of important ways that children benefit from parent or guardian support for learning follows.
- Continue reading with children. The literature grows more involved and challenging, but parents should persist in reading with their children. When children enter middle school and then high school, reading what their children read provides a couple of critical opportunities: (1) it emphasizes that parents value what their children are learning, and (2) it keeps parents more in tune with children's developing lives.
- Hold high expectations for achievement. Unless a child has a learning disability or a physical reason for not scoring solid marks in school, everyone can achieve at high levels. Those who struggle are often the ones who don't maintain their focus, they either don't complete or hand in homework, they put off completing projects until it's too late to submit quality work, they don't have goals that will sustain them during difficult times, or they even avoid challenging classes that are, in the long run, less boring than easier subjects.
- Talk to children about the future. Children need goals. Younger children will naturally express goals that are more elementary and less specific such as: do well in school, get along with others, prepare for the next grade level. As children mature, adults should help them identify more specific goals such as: sustain involvement in one or two extracurricular activities, prepare for advanced study or admission into a solid college or technical school, and earn honor roll standing. The more parents talk to children about school and about the goals that a solid education makes possible for them, the more the message sinks in: School is your job, it is important, it prepares you for your future.
- Build a learning enviornment at home. In addition to the above suggestions, parents and guardians should establish a consistent homework time in a routine learning space in the home. And if children say they don't have homework on a particular day, then pleasure reading or journal writing during the established time and in the routine place will reinforce expectations for achievement and help develop the literacy skills that are the key to learning in all subject areas.
- Communicate frequently with school personnel. Parents who maintain contact with their children's teachers and principals are much more informed about what is going on behind school doors, and their conversations with their children are more on target and pertinent to the current classroom focus. And targeted conversation about school at home delivers the undeniable message that school and achievement are important.
- Access community learning places. Libraries, museums, and zoos are just a few examples of great places for children to learn about art, history, and the ever changing world around them. Some musuems and zoos are even free to the public on certain days of the week. The Euclid Public Library and other libraries offer free programming to children and families and welcome learners of all ages every day. Taking advantage of these wonderful resources nurtures a child's curiosity and reinforces his or her interest in the world and its exciting mysteries.
We have all heard the comment that "it takes a village to raise a child." Certainly, it at least takes committed professionals and active parents or guardians. It's a privilege and an honor to touch the future as we do as teachers and parents. And knowing how challenging the future is likely to be, the more effort we put behind our roles, the more likely it will be that the future will look rosy for everyone.