How Does Popularity Impact Your Child's Education?

Your daughter comes home with a report card that you weren't worried about at all. True to form, she has straight A's across the board. No big surprise there. What does come as a surprise is when you ask your daughter to help her younger brother on pre-algebra and she is totally lost. Since she has straight A's in trigonometry and calculus, you have to stop and wonder what gives.

Your child tells you that the teacher lets her slide. This is not only a completely unprofessional move on the art of the teacher, but it isn't exactly benefiting your child either. I know a girl who gets straight A's and has no idea what the subject material is. Those Honor Roll certificates look great on the wall, but they aren't going to do a darn thing for her in college.

You get so many calls from the school that you know your child can't be learning, yet they move on to the next grade. Right here is where the problems come in when it comes to teacher accountability. Students who cause problem at an early age are often labeled and dismissed before they ever get to the next grade level. Worse, the teachers are so eager to move the child on that they pass the child regardless of their abilities just so they don't have to deal with the child next year and the child's scores won't impact teacher accountability beyond this one year.

Kids spend more time in pep rallies than in class. In areas like mine, where basketball happens to be quite popular, grades seem to mean less than how many baskets can be made in one game. The signal here is that the student is above reproach or rules that apply to everyone else because they might be the star player. Pep rallies are great for the popular kids; they do nothing for the kids who are struggling to maintain their grades.

Sometimes these issues even go hand in hand. Soon, your child will think that none of the rules apply to them and if you let this train of thought continue, you're only doing your child a disservice. We send our children to school to be educated in basic skills and beyond if possible. Teaching your child to trade on their popularity only teaches them to be shallow and to avoid developing any real skills.

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References: Personal Experience