Mom: What do I expect from my children’s elementary school? Certainly not this.
Laura Eberhart Goodman is a former classroom teacher and writer on “The Synapse” on Medium. Her work has been published on the YouShare Project, and in the upcoming IAGC (Illinois Association for Gifted Children) annual journal. You can find her musings on the value of creativity, unstructured play, and the importance of preserving childhood on her blog,Boilsdown.com, where this piece appeared. She was raised on a farm north of Baltimore, Maryland and currently resides in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and two children. In this post. she writes about her concerns about the experiences her children are having at elementary school. It’s not what she had hoped for or expected.
By Laura Eberhart Goodman
When I put my children on the bus in the morning, the wish I call out to them after kissing their heads, is, “Have a good day!” Pure and simple.
Now, I know that not every day can be a birthday party, and not all things in life should be made into a fun activity. My wish is not overly naïve or idealistic, it is simply that they enjoy their day at school. It is my hope that even if there are moments of the day when things don’t go well, or times when they are frustrated, or they find something to be particularly challenging, the overall feeling when they return home is not negative.
I want them to have had enough positive experiences, enough moments of engagement, enough creativity and fun built into their day that “good” is the predominant mood descriptor.
That is not currently the case.
The children that I get off of the bus are exhausted. They are frustrated. They are overworked. They are burned out. I feel as if I should make them a weak whiskey on the rocks, hand them their pipe and slippers, and leave them alone for an hour to decompress.
It takes them a bit of time before they can think of something positive to tell me, and usually it ends up being something that happened during recess or lunch. I would blame the teachers for this bleak attitude, but I was one, and I know that the teachers are just as tired, frustrated and overworked. Their teachers are trying to inject as much fun into the day as possible, but are obligated to keep up with deadlines, adhere to the curriculum, and meet the standards. No, this pressure is coming from high above. And it is squishing my children with its weight.
For my elementary school aged children, I care more about whether or not they love going to school than I do about their academic progress. I am clever enough to know that if they are enjoying themselves at school, they will learn. Academics follow naturally if the proper environment for learning is there.
From a parental perspective, a good learning environment is one with positive energy. The teachers want to be there, and the children want to be there. No Mom: What do I expect from my children’s elementary school? Certainly not this. - The Washington Post: