Every school year, you and your child add a new partner in your child’s education: the teacher! As your child’s first and most important teacher, it is imperative that you cultivate a working relationship with your child’s teacher(s) as part of his/her educational success. Doing this builds a strong and positive foundation for your child’s education and demonstrates how to form positive partnerships as s/he grows older.
Today, I’m very pleased to share a resource by Stephen G. Peters, Ed. D that emphasizes the importance of teachers seeing our children as people, not just a grade or standardized test score. Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? shares student perspectives and what teachers need to know to inspire their students to learn.
Although this resource is addressed to teachers, we as parents can learn from it as well. It provides several interviews that give powerful insight into how students view their teachers and the learning process, and what influences a student’s point of view.
This book offers its readers an opportunity to affirm and validate those approaches and strategies they are already using successfully, even as it makes possible an acceptance of the reality that today's students need more. There are so many problems facing public education today. They are too numerous to name. I am a firm believer that the answers to many of these problems or issues rest within the hearts and minds of our young people and that everyone loses when we silence or ignore their voices. (Dr. Stephen G.Peters)
Dr. Peters goes on to say the main difference between successful teachers and unsuccessful ones is an understanding of their students—not just as students who need to be taught, but also as people who want to learn. This makes it imperative that we share who our children are with their teachers. Our children are going to see their teachers and interact with them on a regular basis for ten months (at least) out of the year. If teachers are not informed about who our children are as human beings, aside from their test scores or grades, they can’t possibly teach them as well.
While we know we are our children’s first teachers, we must keep in mind they will have many more throughout their lives. Dr. Peters sums it up perfectly, “Teachers have the power and authority to help create dreams or break them, to build up a child or destroy her.” Let’s remember that teachers can use our help to understand better about who our children are as human beings. As parents, we want to watch for opportunities to share what is happening with our children outside the classroom, not just the difficulties, but the accomplishments, too!
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