How Can I Help My Child When They are Struggling in School?

My child is struggling in school and he doesn’t seem to care! 

I believe this is a common issue that many parents will face and many parents do not know how to help.  My experiences as an educator for 10+ years, being married to an educator for 12 years, and being a father of three have helped me understand some reasons for school failures. 

Many students have legitimate reasons for struggling in school. Some reasons are attention problems, learning disabilities, emotional issues, social problems, and embarrassment. Many of these should be handled by professionals within the school (attention deficits and learning disabilities), but others can be addressed through communication and strategic relationships.

Because of normal adolescent behaviors, students are often interested in things other than schoolwork.  As teenager’s social life increases and choices of positive friends decreases, the academic achievements can often suffer.  This is not because your child is getting dumber, but because they are getting less interested in school.  Often times parents are clueless to this decrease in academics because they don’t ask the right questions or seek out additional information from the school.  As a parent, it is our responsibility to ask the right questions to our children and to the school.

Many times, students start to care more about friends than they do about homework, causing them to fall behind in class.  Once a student falls behind they often are too embarrassed to ask for help and therefore fall further behind.  To save the embarrassment of feeling dumb, they sometimes put up the front that “school is stupid” or “I don’t need school”.  This is not because students really believe this; it is because this is easier than facing the battle of getting caught up in class.

What to do?

Here are a few of the techniques I have found to be successful.

• Find an older peer that is positively engaged in school to mentor your son or daughter.  Peer influence is very powerful, take advantage of that.

• Find a teacher that will invest in your child in school and out of school.  Once kids realize that teachers care, their performance will improve.

• Find a teacher you can talk to.  Teachers spend time with your kids and often have insights that you won’t about what is really going on in your child’s life.

• Be bold in stressing to your child how important school is.  An education opens up opportunities for a lifetime.

• Be bold in asking questions of the school.  Your child is worth fighting for!

Proverbs 4:13: Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life. 

By Kevin Hedrick, Vice President of Residential Services