This week’s term is brought to you in the form of a rant, and maybe I’m ill-informed. Maybe I’ll spark a heated debate. Who knows? I was having a conversation this week that reminded me of something increasingly prevalent in the education system today: helicoptering.
What’s helicoptering?
I’m not referring to someone flying a helicopter; I’m referring to the fact that parents are becoming increasingly involved in their children’s education…but negatively. Instead of simply being a supportive presence, available to answer homework queries and/or help with assignments, parents are injecting themselves into the school system and pointing out the flaws that are affecting their children. Not all parents do this, but a lot of them do.
When I was in grade school, my parents were very hands-on with my education outside of school (and so they should have been). However, in school, it was my responsibility to navigate the complexities of receiving an education…on my own. Sure, my parents and other parents would intervene if they saw that I was struggling with something, perhaps inquiring about what methods were in place for extra help, etc. However, what I see happening in our grade school system now (and maybe it’s just a regional thing), is that parents are becoming obstructions to their children’s education…unintentionally I’m sure, but becoming over-protective and hyper vigilant.
Now. As I said before, there’s a certain level of vigilance that is expected from parents. We all want our children to be treated fairly and to be provided with the appropriate resources needed to succeed. It’s when this vigilance oversteps normal that things become problematic.
How so?
Here’s one example I can think of. A former co-worker of mine was a teacher at an elementary school, and the school had recently implemented a no homework policy – I’m not entirely sure of the reasoning behind this; although, it was probably rooted some helicopter parenting traits (e.g. not wanting to negatively affect a child’s self-esteem, etc.). Anyhow, my friend had sent her class home with a task of noting three historical events. It could have been something as simple as “I had toast for breakfast this morning.”, and she was reprimanded later that week because a parent had complained that their child had been sent home with ‘homework’.
Another example: Within the last few years, our schoolboard has changed assignment requirements so that all graded work can be handed in on the last day of the semester. This is unrealistic. In the real world, there are real deadlines. You can’t just take 3-4 months to finish working on something. Additionally, it creates more of a burden on the teachers, who are already working overcapacity.
THIS is when helicoptering gets out of hand.
If we’re not teaching our children that there are rules and assignments and deadlines, etc., then how are we bettering our children for the role they’ll inevitably encounter when entering university, college, or the workforce? The places our children will go in the future tend to all be governed by rules, regulations, impending deadlines, or at least timeliness. What may have originally been parents wanting the best for their children will end up backfiring years down the road.
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