Finding the Right Partner in Raising your Child: Finding the Right School for Your Child
In the US, a child is expected to go to school starting at five years old, and for the next 13 years, they will spend most of their life in school.
Let’s do some math together.
When your child turn 18 years old, they would have lived for roughly 157,680 hours alive.
They sleep for 59,860 hours if they sleep average of 12 hours for the first 5 years of their lives, and 8 hours a day from 5-18 years old. That is roughly 38% of their lives.
Assuming your child’s school day is 7 hours a day, and each school year, they spend 36 weeks in school. They will spend 16,380 hours in school, which is 27% of their lives. This does not include preschool, after-school classes, summer school, clubs, or other school-related enrichment activities. With those, the number could be as high as 30%. Almost one-third of your child’s life is spent in school.
The rest of the time, the child’s time is spent with you, their peers, and other activities that you sign up for your child, which s about 32%.
This makes the school one of the most important partners in raising your child. The school is not just a place where your child learns knowledge. It is also a place where your child learns how the world works, how complex it is, how to be a citizen, and what society expects of them.
The 4 reasons that schools exist today are (from Creative School by Sir Ken Robinson)
Economics: the government knows that a well-educated workforce is crucial to national economic prosperity.
Cultural: School is one of the main ways for the communities to pass on their values and traditions from one generation to the next.
Social: Schools provide students the opportunity to become active and engaged citizens.
Personal: Schools are a place for students to realize their potential and live fulfilled and productive lives.
Whatever the child is learning at school will be brought home, and the child will combine what they are learning in school with what you teach them at home. They combine their knowledge to make sense of the world and develop their own idea of how they will behave as adults. This makes the school the most important partnership in raising your child.
Do you know what your child is learning in school? How are your child’s teachers teach them about producing something of value in today’s society? How are your child’s teachers teaching them about our culture today? How are your child’s teachers teaching them what it means to be a citizen in today’s culture? How well do your child’s teachers help them realize their potential and gifts?
To help you pick the right partner, first, you must investigate the school you are partnering with. Here are some questions to help you investigate
What knowledge is my child acquiring in all the subject areas: language arts, math, science, social studies, PE, arts, music, and other subjects your child is learning?
What processes and procedures are my child learning and using in school?
What concept is my child learning that my child is applying in other areas of life?
What cultural values are the school teaching?
What social skills is my child’s school teaching for emotion regulation and social interactions?
What does my child feel about the school?
You can answer these questions by flipping through your child’s textbook, reading through the homework, and asking your child about their school and what your child is learning. The more you understand what is going on in school, the better you will be in deciding if the current schooling is the best partner you can have in raising your child.
