What is really critical? Perspective of an educator of 40 years & a grandparent to boot

Learning how to read, write, spell and calculate are the most fundamental skills our children need to learn. It is critical students develop a firm foundation during their elementary years in order to build upon the skills for more advanced and conceptual learning in middle and high school - all parents seem to intuitively know this. What comes into question is whose role is what. Parents remain the number one, most important source for teaching values, beliefs, citizenship, manners, character, awareness, problem-solving, perseverance, resilience, independence, and work ethic. The school's primary role is to teach the how to--- read, calculate, write, spell, and then as students become older, teachers no longer teach how to learn but rather how to apply those basic skills to learn novel, conceptually, and inferred information independently.

During preschool years, parents need to set the foundation for learning. Skills such as reading to their children daily to develop listening and literal comprehension skills or playing games to introduce pre-academic concepts create the desire and curiosity to learn. Playing games also teach social norms, patience, and coping skills. Preschool - elementary school children's gross motor skills are developing to build eye-hand coordination, strength, problem-solving skills, and an appreciation for nature's wonders. Being outdoors allows learning to just happen through exploration, trial, and error, cause and effect. It is a major bonding time between child and parent and with siblings.

The school's role is to academically partner with parents. Education cannot happen in silos. What is taught at school needs to be reinforced at home and vice versa. Mastery of skills happens when the child has the opportunity to practice and apply newly acquired skills in multiple settings. When parents are part of the education team children's learning flourishes. When children see the prominent adults in their life are working in concert, confidence is instilled. Many learning issues or challenges can be avoided when the focus is teaching the child how to learn and then giving him/her enough time, practice, and supports to master the concepts.

As parents, we have slowly given our parenting over to the schools. They feed our children breakfast, lunch, snacks, and sometimes even dinner, keeping the child at school more hours than any other place. In the name of convenience, we have our children receiving all their needs from a source that is not us. We are thrilled our child is happy, fed, and safe while we work or juggle multiple schedules. This trade-off came with a price. The school then decided when our child was going to learn about the birds and bees with a depth of graphical sexual knowledge beyond developmental appropriateness. The school played around with the concept that everyone is a winner and should earn a trophy for showing up, hence removing life long skills needed to retain a worthy job (skills: working hard will enable one to achieve, perseverance, teamwork, camaraderie, coping skills, ambition, and a spirit to do well). The last decade has had schools shift from the belief that if one succeeds academically he or she can achieve anything, doors will open, opportunities will be endless… to focusing on social movements without a moral compass, discernment or truth, or vision for students future.

Teachers are the experts when it comes to teaching academics; let's enable them to get back to their craft. We, parents, will take back the responsibility of parenting. In a child's eyes, their parent is the hero. Hero's do what it takes, what is right, and what is needed even when it is hard and inconvenient. When a child sees their parent acting like a hero- magic happens!

Academically equipping our children to become confident, capable, responsible, independent learners happens when parents and schools work in tandem. Learning is critical!