Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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The most important factor in a student’s learning is his or her cooperation with the teacher’s instruction. Misbehaving is a guarantee of negligible classroom learning.
What works is attention to learning. When that becomes a problem, parents must be notified. As a teacher in Philadelphia, I always received total cooperation from parents, which made a difference. The student saw the supportive connection between home and school.
Recently, I spoke independently with three teachers and a counselor, and I heard the same thing: Parents are supportive of their misbehaving student. Even this small sampling was a revelation.
Without parental support, neither a smaller class size nor more technology nor books nor bigger budgets will help the low ranking of disobedient students.
So teachers, keep making home calls. And parents, understand the value of supporting your children’s teachers.
