Ten Skills Parents Need to Catapult Their Children's Learning

We are in a new era in education. Parents have been forced to take on the role of teacher and teachers are now relegated to the role of instructional designers. I have heard polarized feedback from parents regarding their new obligations and it falls into two camps: parents hate it and can't wait for regular school to start again, or parents love it and realize what they have been missing by sending their children to school. Home schooling is going to have a huge surge of interested parents and they will need tools to help them.

This year students in the United States and the world were sent home from school. In attempts to keep students learning, and to keep teachers employed, teachers have been communicating with parents in various ways. Colleges simply went all online and many high schools and middle schools did the same. Students were asked to continue their assignments using a learning management system and they work directly with the teachers. Elementary schools had to be more creative on how they delivered instructional tools to parents because they usually do not have direct electronic contact with their students. Some schools and teachers simply use online content delivery companies and monitor student progress. Others actually use email, social media, telephone calls and messages and yes even stamped mail to communicate with parents. While some teachers are naturals at reaching out to parents, for others, this was only done on an as needed basis, or in other words, almost never. But now, all teachers have to depend on parents to make sure their students are learning and parents feel the pressure.

There have been many mimes and funny messages from parents who now appreciate the educators that spend time with their children. They state that teachers need a raise, they are now grateful for their students' teachers, and basically can't wait for school to start up as usual so they can relieve the pressure of having their students at home all the time. The hype about the plague has made it worse for parents because normal parent releases such as the park, swimming pools, movie theaters, game centers, sleep overs, etc... are off limits. For such parents, the stress is mounting each day, but they are dealing with it the best way they can.

For other parents, having their children at home all the time has proved to be a blessing in disguise. Yes, they appreciate what teachers have done for their children, but they are experiencing a new importance in their role as the prime educator in their student's lives. Instead of sending their children to school and missing the joyous moments of enlightenment that the teacher gets to experience daily, now the parents are the beneficiaries of being able to witness the spark of understanding and feel the enthusiasm as their children engage in purposeful learning. Not only this, parents are feeling more engaged than ever before with their children's learning and they are discovering that they can get done in two or three hours, what it took the school 6-7 hours to do. Parents are becoming frustrated that the bookwork, worksheets and busywork that schools provide, are not enjoyable and not effective at helping their students learn. Many of these enlightened parents have put aside the computer work and worksheets and have devised ways their families can learn together in real learning: math in the kitchen making lunch, science in the back yard, reading stories together, playing games, exercising, decorating the sidewalks and painting their bedrooms.

When we decided to home school our children my wife justified it by saying why should I send my children to school, just when they are beginning to be fun and interesting? For several years we homeschooled our children, even though I was a public school educator. We loved it. We got to know our own children better and felt that our children were emotionally and physically safer at home while they learned at a much faster rate than the regular public school children. Plus we got to do all the fun stuff as often as we wanted. One of the things that worried us most, however, was finding a curriculum for the students to learn. Buying books and materials for several grades became expensive, and the thought kept nagging at us, "Are the learning what they need to know?" In the current situation, public schools and teachers are purporting to know what the students need to know and be able to do to be successful in life. But unfortunately, though the content learning schools provide is useful, it also turns students off to learning. Learning becomes a drudgery to be avoided at all costs. Right now parents and students are asking, "why do all this?" Testing has been cancelled so there is no pressure to prepare for state or national tests. Teachers have to grade student work but will have to accept any quantity or quality of work and they will not be able to fail students, so what does it matter?

Herein lies the wonderful opportunity for parents to take charge of their student's learning and help them learn what really matters: the skills for independent and life-long learning. In my research, I discovered ten traits that are essential for students to be successful in advanced schooling, careers and life. With these tools, parents can show their children how to learn and then get out of the way as their children engage their own voracious thirst for knowledge and understanding. I wrote a book, ostensibly for teachers to weave the ten skills that I discovered into their teaching, but the pressure of state testing and the tradition of public education learning practices makes it difficult for them to implement. Now I am offering it to parents who have the need and the desire to help their children be successful learners, now, and forever.

While some parents are not able to take advantage of teaching their students due to work, skills or interests, other parents are reveling in getting to know their children better and learning with them. Parents choose homeschooling because they want more for their children's learning than the mindless busywork provided by schools. In this current situation, parents are discovering that home schooling done correctly takes dedication and time, but also needs the correct tools, tools that schools do not provide.

Dr, Johnson is the author of "Teaching Students to Dig Deeper: Ten Essential Skills for College and Career Readiness." The book can be obtained from major retailers like Amazon and also at a discount from the publisher, Routledge: Teaching Students to Dig Deeper .