Leaving Books in School, Missing School, The Locker

Middle School Years: Achieving the Best Education for Your Child, Grades 5-8
by Michele A. Hernandez

(Page 3 of 3)

Leaving Books in School

There are ways to reduce the risk of your children leaving books in school. One extreme measure is to buy an extra copy of the heaviest, bulkiest textbooks to keep at home; yet this is costly and many public schools don't even have enough to go around in the first place. However, even if you can't afford to buy an extra textbook, there is another way at least to minimize the number of days a week your child will need to carry the book home. Assuming that the teacher is organized and assigns work in advance, if your child brings home the textbook for a certain subject on a Friday, he can actually complete the assignments for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the following week so that he does not necessarily need to bring the book home unless there is a test that needs to be studied for. As we will see in later chapters, getting ahead or reading ahead in several subjects is one of the keys for later academic success.

Some teachers allow students to use a “buddy system” rather than transport back and forth five or six heavy textbooks every day: Two buddy students bring a certain heavy textbook to school on alternate days, and then they sit next to each other in the classroom so they can share their class copy.

If you actually pick up your child at school every day (and I realize that the majority of students will take the bus, but this advice is for those who don't), there is no excuse to leave a book at school because you can remind your child to check which books will be necessary to complete the night's homework before you leave the campus. Finally, money permitting, it's not a bad idea to invest in a basic fax machine (around $150 to $200) so students in your children's class can fax any missed assignments. Many reasonably priced fax machines also have a copying capability; you'd be surprised how often your child will need to photocopy something that is homework related!

Missing School

One thing you will need to teach your children early on is that if they miss school for any reason, it is their responsibility to find out what the homework was. If you know your child is home sick for the day, remind him to call teachers himself for the assignments if he's well enough to do the homework. Good teachers expect to be called and often call home if they know a child is sick (if they don't have a huge class load like many public-school teachers, a situation that makes a phone call home almost an impossibility). If it is hard to reach the teachers at the school, your child should compile a list at the beginning of each school year of two children in each of his classes with their phone numbers. These children can either be friends or just very bright and reliable children (most teachers would be happy to recommend a student who they know always does the homework so that they don't have to be called every time someone misses school). After the school day, you should encourage your child to call this list (hopefully we are only talking about one or two calls, since usually children share several classes) to find out: (1) what they did in every class that day and (2) what the homework is.

There will be cases when your child really can't do the homework because the lesson is impossible without the class instruction, but at the very least the child should attempt it in order to have an idea of what was covered so that he does not feel hopelessly behind when he returns to school. Once your child returns to school, you should train him to talk to every single teacher to explain why he was absent and to ask how he can make up the work. This kind of responsibility at an early age impresses teachers and also prepares students for the years of school ahead. It also teaches them the lesson that missing school does not mean missing work or being allowed to skip something; in fact, it means doing more work to make up what was missed.

The Locker

The only topic we have not covered that has to do with organization is the school locker, assuming your school is like most and has lockers. In terms of developing a procedure, it is a good idea to give your children sometime at beginning of sixth grade a quick lesson in organizing their locker at the beginning of the day. Their first step is making an extra copy of their schedule so that one copy stays in their notebook at all times and the other can be posted right inside the locker's door. This way, your child never loses track of exactly where he is supposed to be at any given time of day.

Next, your child should empty his backpack and impose some order: perhaps textbooks in one section of the locker and notebooks in another. Then the backpack can be hung up for the day on a hook and your child can carry all books he will need before lunch in his arms, then all books he will need after lunch in the second load (if the locker is centrally located). On those occasions when parents are invited into the school for parent-teacher conferences or for open-school nights, it is a good idea to glance inside your child's locker to get a sense of how well he is organizing himself; that is, no loose papers, no rampant disorganization or sloppiness.

Although it may seem like a lot of work on your part to help your children learn how to organize their school days, children carry these habits with them for the rest of their school lives and beyond, so that you will not have to repeat every step every year. Once your children have the organizational tools for success, your job shifts from organizational coach to progress checker, so that all you have to do is touch base once or twice a week to make sure that homework is getting done and that your child is upholding his side of the bargain in school.

Now that we have covered these basic organizational skills, we turn to the crucial process of creating an environment at home that encourages students to succeed academically.

Copyright © 2000 by by Michele A. Hernández

About the Author

Michele A. Hernandez is a native of New York City, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1989. She earned a master's degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. For the last four years, she has been assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College.