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I was filling out
paperwork for our doctor’s office the other day when I was confronted by this
question: How would you rate your child’s academic performance? I was to circle one of the following:
Excellent, Average, Failing. If my
children attended public or private school, I would have simply fished out the
latest report cards and circled the appropriate answer. As a homeschool mom, the question made me
pause. I am I truly an unbiased judge
when it comes to my children’s academic performance?
Make no mistake, I
know I am competent to give my children a good education. I know that for the day to day work I am well
able to assess their strengths and weaknesses and to guide their growth in each
academic area. Nor do I believe that
every teacher in a traditional classroom is completely unbiased – they are
after all as human as we are. But I do
also believe that as parents teaching our children we fall prey to a particular
bias to view our children and their academic progress as above average.
I do think this bias
is somewhat accidental on our part, after all, what parent isn’t proud of their
children and when we have a direct hand in their education, we naturally
magnify that pride as it reflects on us too.
But I do think it is something we should be aware of. And I think that sometimes we need to seek an
outside view in order to make sure our own view of our children and their abilities
is well balanced.
I am not advocating
annual standardized testing or getting the opinion of an education
professional. What I am advocating is
occasionally checking in with the people who interact with our children to see
if they have input on how our children are doing. I appreciate, for example, when my children’s
Sunday School teachers pull me aside and let me know how my kids are doing in
class. I like to know what kinds of
questions they are asking. I like to
know whether they can keep up with the writing, whether they are able to follow
the thread of the discussion. These
things give me clues as to how they apply the academic skills we are learning
at home when I am not the one guiding the class.
I think the older
our children get, the more important getting an outside prospective is. Obviously as parents we know our children
best, but because we have to focus so much on the day to day of running a
household and educating our children, we may not pick up on the fact that our
student has a particular interest in one subject area or a special aptitude for
something. As our students consider
college and careers, we ought to seek outside opinions.
Co-op teachers,
youth leaders and others who interact with our students on a regular basis may
have valuable input about the kinds of careers our students should be
considering. They may have ideas about
how our students can apply their particular interests and talents. They may also have information about colleges
or other educational opportunities that we are not aware of. As we consider our children and their futures
it is well worth getting a different perspective.
