4 Things to Consider Before Sending Your Child Back to School

I’m returning to the classroom. I’m excited and yet, I’m nervous. The social and mental makeup of families has changed since I was in the classroom last. While I dealt with many differences in the past, we have a new generation raising children and those children are the ones I will be teaching. And that scares me.

Why does it scare me? Turn on the news and open your social media pages and you’ll see why I’m nervous. If you don’t see a problem, you might need to take a closer look.

4 Things to Consider Before Sending Your Child Back to School

While many parents think their child does no wrong, they need to get rid of this way of thinking. Every child does wrong! When my son was little and attended pre-school, I never liked hearing about what he did wrong. But it did not give me the right to harbor ill feelings towards those who only tried to help guide him while he was in their class. Nor did I have the right to accuse the teacher of picking on my son although there was evidence of the fact.

I had to learn to keep my wits during those years. I was not only the mother but also a co-worker with the teachers who worked with my son. I knew they would serve me up for dinner in those households and I also knew they would scrutinize me on how I handled certain situations in my classroom. I taught several relatives of my son’s teachers. I knew I could not change how I treated them because I would be guilty of mistreatment. But I didn’t back down on discipline. If the child deserved to be disciplined, they were according to their misdeeds. Thankfully, I had support when I needed it.

I learned to pick my battles. As a parent, we need to learn how to pick which battles are important enough to confront. As a parent, you don’t know what is going on in the classroom. We have what our child tells us and then we have the teacher’s words. Unless there are cameras in the room, it’s a he said/she said situation. Having discernment is a must when dealing with others and our children.

As a teacher, I never wanted to receive the dreaded “we have a situation” message from the office during the day. While I liked having the administration between me and the parent, I did not like surprise attacks. And I had several surprise firebombs!

At the beginning of each year my son was in school, I tried to be open and upfront with the teacher. I wanted her to be the one to work out any problems without getting others involved. After all, she was the one in charge of the class and I wanted for her to have control over the situation.

As one year wore on, I knew I would get nowhere with the teacher, that is why I questioned the administration about something. I let them know I was not trying to cause any problems, but I was wondering about a situation that was happening.

The teacher was not pleased with my questions. She stormed up to me at lunch in front of several others and said she knew it was me bringing up questions. She went on to say I was the only one around except for another mom and she wasn’t smart enough to pick up on things. Needless to say, I was devastated and the other teachers were shocked at her behavior. For my son's sake, I had to let it roll off of me and move on.

Before I enrolled my son in our pre-school, I was already having problems with the teacher. It all boiled down to the close friendship I had with one of our friends. Jealousy brought about trouble for me in the early years and now with my son in her class, the trouble rolled over to him.

While I honestly can't say I specifically prayed for this teacher, I now know I should have been praying for her everyday.

Anytime I think about that year, I want to get upset. But I can't, it’s in the past and nothing can be done about it. The only thing I can do for myself is pray for those thoughts and feelings to leave me.

As you are preparing to send off your precious child to school, remember your teacher is human. They will make mistakes. Your child is not the only one in the classroom. There is a lot that goes on in a room full of children. The teacher will not see and hear everything. Be kind, be patient, be supportive of your teachers.