The Importance of Parenting in School, and Why Your Kids Don’t Listen to You

As a whole, society undervalues the potential impact that parenting has on kids in school. Most commonly, we think of schools, students, and teachers as being responsible for how students perform. While these are obvious factors, parents also have a role to play.

To get the most out of children, these 3 groups have to want the same goals. If the parents want grades, the kids want happiness and the teachers want discipline – then the group is out of balance. 

However, today I’m going to focus on the parents. 

As parents, the role you play is vastly different from the relationship between a teacher and a student. My worry is that many parents want to also play the role of a teacher – whether they know it or not.

This is done with good intentions but can lead to negative results. To break it down further, here is my interpretation of how the roles are split:

Parent: Shows the student how to be a moral adult with a set of life skills that sets them up for independence. Is a support network for the student

Teacher: Guides and mentors the student to better understand their place in the world around them, and helps to create an independent learner.

I’m generalising and simplifying these roles, there will, of course, be some overlap between the two but this makes my point easier to convey.

While the differences might seem small, a parents role is to show how to survive in the reality we live, while the teachers are to give children the capability to change their reality. In other words, parents provide a solid foundation, which teachers and mentors can build the student up from. Good parenting is being that support the child needs as they learn and explore the world around them.

However, problems arise when parents either don’t provide this support at all or, over structure their lives to the point where the child can’t possibly become independent. 

Protecting your son or daughter from the worries of the world around them is a natural instinct. But the urge to leave the nest and discover who you are is just as natural for children.

I’ll end with this: If it takes a village to raise a child, don’t lock the kid in your house.