educating your children: your smart phone should not be the only "smart" thing about you.

By: Mick Trivane

As a parent, if you want your children to be educated you HAVE to do most of it yourself. You can no longer expect the public schools to do your job for you. This doesn't mean embracing traditional home-schooling per-se... it means taking advantage of the public school system for what it is best at offering... Baby sitting services with rudimentary course lessons mixed in.

What should you do? First, meet your children's teachers, thank them for helping you, let them know that you care about education as much as they do and express your willingness to be their partner in educating your child. Give them your phone number and make them feel comfortable enough to share anything with you. A great many teachers are still great teachers, but how would you know without meeting them? They are people too, they began their careers with pride and hope and an unwavering determination to make a difference in the world. Sadly, as with many careers, the constant complaining from an aloof administration, the blaming from the parents, the threats from the students, the union intimidation, the sabotage from their lesser colleagues and a general lethargy emanating from the defeated around them have all conspired in an effort to extinguish the flame and have now left them feeling a bit numb, disillusioned and bewildered. In other words, they are tired and are swiftly approaching burn-out.

You should encourage teachers and aid them whenever possible. If you are quick to complain, maybe you should be just as quick to praise. Nobody likes (or needs) a complainer that never offers solutions or a person who is unwilling to offer sincere applause for a job well done. A paycheck might have been what initially brought them to the blackboard, but feeling useful and hearing "good job!" keeps them coming back. Sit down every night and do the assigned homework WITH your child not FOR your child. Study everything provided by the school and then endeavor to go far beyond the system. Visit planetariums, aquariums, science centers, plays and sporting events, museums, zoos, parks, forests, rivers, ponds, streams, oceans, monuments, cemeteries, chapels, farms, gardens, children's hospitals, old-age homes, shelters, court houses, police stations, fire stations, construction sites, restaurant kitchens and libraries. (NO EXCUSES... MOST OF THESE ARE FREE TO VISIT). Also, teach them about money, how it is earned, how it is spent, how it is saved, how it can return interest, how to balance, how to budget, how to do your OWN taxes. When you hear or read a word that you have never seen or heard, (or maybe you have heard it before or read it before but still don't know what it means) LOOK IT UP and share it with your child and try using it correctly, there are so many beautiful words with wonderful descriptive meanings, you should try to learn them all, don't let them remain unused in the phone in the back pocket of those skinny jeans.

And please... Don't let your smart phone be the only smart thing about you.