by Thomas Baskin

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: June 03, 2009

Solving problems at school should start well before the school year even starts. From my experience, if you get involved early, you can possibly avoid trouble altogether. The first thing any parent should do is at the beginning of the school year, take advantage of meeting with the teacher who your child is going to have. This is the perfect opportunity to let the teacher know of any difficulties that he or she may experience in dealing with your child. This initial step will show the teacher that you are open for communication from them.

I think a lot of parents fail to realize that you as a parent have to present a united front with your child's teacher to get the child to realize that they cannot go to school and cut up. It's absolutely necessary that you and the teacher be on the same page when it comes to education. If you are not, try requesting a different teacher but this should be done at the beginning of the school year when it's easier for both child and teacher to make a smooth transition. In my experience, that step is not even necessary as long as you are communicating with each other.

Parents must stop looking at teachers as disciplinarians and realize that they are teachers. Teachers teach and parents discipline. It's unfortunate that some parents rely on the school to handle problems that are supposed to be taken care of at home. It's bad enough that teachers are very limited in how to deal with disruptive children, sometimes they have to deal with unruly parents too.

As parents, we cannot believe everything that our child tells us that happens when he or she may get into a bit of trouble. A lot of parents believe their child's version of events and are quick to dismiss the teachers' version of events because they simply believe their child has done no wrong. This is the biggest rift between parents and teachers and can be avoided by staying in contact with your child's teacher and being reasonable about your child's behavior when he or she are out of your eye sight.

Parents should not only expect the best from their child, we need to encourage and demand nothing less. This should be expressed to our children the moment that they enter the school system. It should be stressed that if you are out of line at school, there are consequences that follow and parents must act upon these warnings. It's called parenting and it seems in today's society, there is less of that going on. We as parents need not make up excuses as to why our children are having problems at school. We need to acknowledge those problems and face them head on whether it's a school issue or a child or parenting issue.

The sad reality of the school system today is that the children who are having problems at school and whose parents are not in constant communication with the school are looked upon as lost individuals. Their parents are labeled as parents that don't care even though that may not be the case. We have too many children today who fall through the cracks simply because there is not any parent involvement at the school.

Communication is the best offense to head off problems at school. There would be less fights, bullying, taunting and other inappropriate behavior if more parents would just talk to their child's teacher every so often. To me this is the perfect solution.

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