Involved but Not Overbearing
Helicopter parents are the bane of every teacher’s existence. With the return of back-to-school season, it’s vital to find a happy medium between the tiger mom who bares her teeth at the smallest setback in her child’s schooling and the laissez-faire parent who is totally disengaged from their kid’s education. Here are a few tips to keep you involved in your child’s educational development while fostering relationships with their teachers in a way that won’t drive all of you up the wall. 1. Be a little empathetic. Teachers are some of the hardest-working people in the world, wrangling the disparate needs of around 25 children day in and day out while attempting to get them
to actually learn something. It’s a high-stress, low-paying job. In the midst of grading 300 research papers written by 12-year-olds, the last thing they need is the added pressure of concerned parents bearing down on them. If you can approach a teacher from a position of understanding and be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, you’ll be off to a good start. 2. Show up and keep an open mind. Ask any teacher in the country, and they’ll undoubtedly tell you that one of the best predictors of a child’s success is whether or not their parents make an appearance at parent-teacher conferences. Your engagement should go beyond that. Use the teacher’s preferred method of communication to stay in semi-regular contact with them — always ensuring that you keep an open mind about any praise, suggestions, or concerns they have about your child. 3. Teach your child to take responsibility. Aside from leaving your kid completely to their own devices, one of the worst things you can do is swoop in to solve their problems for them at the slightest hint of adversity. Maybe that D your kid got on their algebra test really was their fault. It’s important to acknowledge your child’s missteps, but you should also try to equip them with the tools necessary to advocate for themselves. Learning to articulate what’s going wrong or what they need from their teacher will help them to develop positive and effective communication skills. The key is to work together with your child’s teacher without being overbearing. Don’t come in with guns blazing at the first sign of an educational slip. Think of your kid’s schooling as a collaborative effort —maybe one in which you’re a little less involved than the teacher — and you’ll be giving your child the best chance of success.
was one of the thousands of civilians who died and whose stories went under the table each year.
who are still practicing their profession do so because of an overwhelming love for education and for progress that is almost in extinction. Horacio was one of them, and I wonder if he was the one who was going to predict, prevent, or at least help cure the diseased economy that was setting upon us so quickly. A loss like this is different from one due to sickness or even robbery because losses like these are not accidents. Accidents are circumstances that could not have been prevented or controlled. Horacio’s death could have been prevented. A distracted driver affects our community because someone like this is no less than a terrorist. No one in my home country bikes anywhere because it is suicide. People are frightened of distracted drivers, as they easily kill pedestrians or cause them paralysis among other traumatic lesions, which is worse, considering health care is almost nonexistent for lack of medicines and professionals. Knowing that there are distracted drivers in our communities can end our desire to go where we need to go by walking or biking because they are a source of fear and translate to the injury or death of others who don’t
have another option because they don’t own a car. It also creates an atmosphere in which citizens know such drivers do not respect their lives and integrity, because similarly to Horacio’s death, it gives a message that a text is more important that your life and future. Horacio is a single example of the enormity that is a human life, because every “accident” that results in the driver, pedestrian, or both being injured represents an equally alarming domino effect of tragedies. The fear, loss, and trauma that sum up the monopoly of cars as the main way of transportation in our communities occur when people behind the wheel are irresponsible, selfish, and dangerous. They cut off of the ways in which society can become a better living place. Because of the phenomenon of distracted individuals — instead of looking forward to children and bicyclists feeling safe where they live, and expanding their development, and transporting in healthier and more environmentally friendly ways — we see a recession from such values driving a community to retrogression. The ultimate effect of what killed Horacio can then be seen as a threat to progress.
The reason why I tell Horacio’s story is because his death unchained a butterfly effect that was the ruin of many people’s lives, and one that I directly experienced. The students at the University of Canoabo did not have a financial mathematics professor anymore, and the school has not found another as prepared as Horacio since then. This troubled all economics students, as the nearest university with the course was a two-hour drive away. Horacio’s family fell apart, victims of uncertainty and grief that led to broken relationships. Horacio’s wife moved and stopped practicing her profession, leaving Bejuma without a cardiologist. My grandmother was one of her patients. Two of the boys left the country, and no one has heard anything about them since then. To further explain the magnitude of the consequences of Horacio’s death, I will reference the poor and alarming state of my home country’s economy today. Venezuela has the worst-performing economy in the world, with a 2,300 percent inflation rate. Seventy-five percent of the country’s professors have emigrated, as they were not paid enough to even feed themselves. The few brave ones
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