One great factor that affects the ability of the Pupils to learn from School is his activities at home. I can’t explain it better by just typing anything here. Let’s just talk some examples.
To let you know, I learn how to read and write by just staying inside my mom’s classroom. My mother was a lone teacher of one of the remote primary school in Surigao del Sur, teaching Grade 1 to 3. While my mother was teaching, I was there sitting at my mother’s table, observing them and sometimes participated the class too. Then after several months, I was already given the task by my mother to teach her Grade 1 pupils on writing.
At home, my father read me his English Holy Bible and then translate it to Visayan Dialect. By just doing that, I started to learn how to read English terms.
When I was already in Elementary grade, my parents were still there guiding me in my school activities. My father taught me Music, Math and Vocational Lessons like Carpentry and Gardening. My mother became my inspiration in studies too.
Today, most of the children are given less attention by their parents. They are sent to school but then the parents didn’t help their children learn the things they need to learn. Parents do not even react knowing their children spend more times playing and watching TV instead of spending their times studying and doing assignments given by their teachers.
I remember, there was a time my mother called a special meeting for a certain parents of her class. She asked the said parents to help her guide their child in doing homeworks she gave. Instead of thanking my mother on her concern to their child, my mother receive insulting words from them, telling my mom that teaching their child was her job not their job. Well, well. Let’s just excuse these parents because they are ignorant of their obligation their children.
In London, there was a good strategy a School Head Teacher did to help slow learner pupils. That is, seizing their computer and television sets from their homes.
A head teacher has raised standards at his school by confiscating computers and television sets from the homes of under-performing pupils.
Duncan Harper, the head of New Woodlands school in Bromley, south London, visits the homes of pupils who are tired or grumpy in lessons and seizes electronic equipment from their bedroom. (source)
Parents might be affected by what the Head Teacher did, but the result of it is good.
Mr Harper, who first asks parents’ permission to remove the articles, says that academic results and behaviour have improved markedly since he introduced the “seizure policy”. (ibid)
And parents who understand the value of their children’s education appreciate this job:
Miss Blake, 37, said: “It is a fantastic idea. He wasn’t happy about it but it sends a very clear message that he can understand: ‘misbehave and you lose the game, behave well and you can have it back’. After being a child who didn’t sleep, would hit out at other children, and would be sent home from his old school 10 minutes after arriving, he is now the happiest he has ever been.” (ibid)
And they learned something for their own too.
Mr Harper said parents, who have fully supported the idea, are also learning about the dangers of giving their children unsupervised access to computers and television.
“It is about building up the self esteem of the parents too, and putting the power back in their hands.” He added: “We are the last chance for many of these children. It is the little things that can make a real difference and this innovation has indirectly helped to improve our results.” (ibid)
I wonder if our government can do the same. Close those play stations that allow students to play and temporarily seize all the televisions of those slow-learner pupils.
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SELaplana, 5 June 2006 at 
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