With the start of the 2018-19 school year fast approaching, I think it is critical to acknowledge the most important role of all parents: being their child’s first and most influential teacher. Parenting involves more than just providing food and shelter for a child. Quality parenting involves educating children. It is about instilling positive values like compassion, honesty, responsibility and instilling good habits like brushing your teeth, getting enough sleep, and eating healthy food. Good parenting involves helping a child understand right from wrong and developing self-discipline. It involves instructing a child on how to make good decisions which are both ethical and effective and accepting the consequences of one’s decisions, whether those results are positive or negative. Quality parenting requires moms and dads to serve as positive role models for their children: acting the way they wish their children to act- saying please and thank you, demonstrating patience, kindness and forgiveness, refraining from racist comments and profanity, and not reacting with anger or violence when things don’t go their way. Our children need parents who teach, reinforce, and model the best we want our children to be.
Parenting, just like teaching, is no easy task and over the ages plenty of individuals much smarter than me have been quoted on this topic. Let me share a few which seem to hit the mark perfectly:
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- “It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.” Ann Landers
- “Real protection means teaching children to manage risks on their own, not shielding them from every hazard.” Wendy Mogul
- “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed…” Heraclitus
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- “Don’t worry that children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you.” Robert Fulghum
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- “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” Peggy O’Mara
The work of parents and the work of teachers in the classroom is very similar. Teachers must also model for their students the behavior they wish to see in their students. While helping students to learn how to read, write, and learn other academic skills is the main work of educators, it is no more important than the teaching which parents must do. The hopes, dreams, and goals which parents and teachers have for their children/students are the same. We want them to be happy, to believe in themselves, to become independent and successful, to reach their potential, to contribute to our society, and to be good human beings. We all, as adults, must recognize the impact our words and actions have on children. We must work together to set boundaries and provide guidance. While we ultimately cannot control every phase of our children’s/students’ lives, we can set limits, we can say no, and we can influence them. This is the hard work that great parenting and great teaching requires of us. Let’s all strive to be the best parents and teachers we can for our children. They deserve no less!
If you have any questions or comments about the information and opinions expressed in this edition of The School Bell, please contact Cindy Zahrte, District Administrator, at cindyz@tomah.k12.wi.us or 374-7002.