By Joe Kingsley Eyiah, OCT, Brookview Middle School, Toronto





The Akans of Ghana have an adage that, "Opanyin na obi nnye bi da, na enye abofra" which literally translated means, "all adults have been children before but all children are yet to be adults." This saying reminds me of my childhood when I often thought I could outsmart my parents in matters of schooling. Unfortunately for me at that time my parents who had been school children before could read my "tricks" faster than I envisaged!





Remember the story, which was told in Ghana about a student who duped his illiterate parents by asking them to pay 3 pounds for a geography book that cost 1 pound. He told parents that "Geo" was 1 pound; "gra" was 1 pound and "phy" was 1 pound. Thus, the Geo-gra-phy book was 3 pounds instead of 1 pound!





Today, students play many other "tricks" on their parents and guardians. I would therefore use this column to shed light on a few of these tricks, which I view as "little foxes" of students. They include, lying about teachers to parents, skipping classes, ignoring their homework, coming to school unprepared and bullying weak students outside the classroom.





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Lying: A student chooses to do his or her own thing in the classroom while teaching is going on. For example, the student breaks one important principle for learning-paying attention to the teacher. The teacher takes control of the situation by, say, changing the seating position of the student concerned. However, the student fails to take responsibility for his/her own action and goes home to tell the parents/guardian that the teacher is picking on him/her. Surprisingly, some parents/guardians simply buy into their ward's cooked story about the teacher without finding out from the teacher the truth of the story told. These parents, unfortunately, develop ill-feelings toward the teacher in question. The student is therefore unwittingly encouraged by the home to show arrogance towards school authority. The whole community in the long run becomes the loser. For, that student grows up an indiscipline community member who willingly flouts laws of the society. He/she demonstrates irresponsibility in life. Sad! Isn't it? Please, don't let your child outsmart you with lies about his/her teacher. Always verify stories from your child about school from the school before jumping to conclusions. The doors of every school are open to parents who care to knock at them.





Skipping Classes:


Some students are "specialists" in skipping classes or school. Many parents for economic reasons leave home early in the morning for work before their children go to school. A few students from such homes take advantage of the early departure of their parents from home and skip school. Such students may roam the malls till school is over and return home creating the impression that they have been to school.





The more intriguing part of skipping classes is seen after lunch break. Some of the students who leave their school premises to eat lunch elsewhere (home, McDonalds or restaurants within the vicinity) fail to return to classes. They seek "refugee" in friends' homes where adults are away on work or hang around parks and malls in the neighborhood. Though schools have ways and means of cross-checking on the absences of their students, it becomes difficult to track the whereabouts of students who skip classes when their (schools) telephone calls to homes of skipping students are not promptly answered. Parents could work closely with schools to close all loopholes, which students may explore to skip classes or school. These could include lunch break calls by parents to their homes from their workplaces to check on their child or leave their children in the care of responsible relatives close-by. Parents must also endeavor to return calls from their children's schools promptly. Moreover, parents could periodically communicate with their children's teachers on the progress of the students (their wards) at school.





Ignoring Homework:


Another area of concern is how some students neglect doing their homework often "fooling" their parents that they (students) have not been receiving homework from their teachers. Though the Ministry of Education has advised teachers not to give home work to their students, it stands that some work can not always be completed at school hence some home assignments for students from teachers might be necessary!


The question is how do parents know that their children have homework from school to do? Most schools, if not all, have planners (agenda books) supplied to all students at the beginning of each school year. In these planners students record all their daily homework given at school. Parents MUST check this planner everyday after school to ascertain which homework their child has to complete for school. If your child has lost his/her school planner, get him/her a new one immediately. The planner or student agenda has a lot of valuable information necessary for your child’s learning!





Preparing for School:


It is very disturbing when a child comes to school without pencils, pens, erasers, rulers and exercise or textbooks. Can a farmer go to work without a cutlass or hoe? What does the farmer go to do on the farm empty-handed? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!! Sad enough some students come to school with no working tools mentioned above. They either sit idle or go round begging other students for writing materials when work is assigned them. Precious time for school work is therefore lost.





Parents ought to ensure that their children are prepared for school with not only food but also exercise/textbooks, pens, erasers and rulers as well. Coming to school prepared is the right way to begin the day at school.





Bullying:


This may sound strange and far from some societies where physical or even verbal harassment is highly prohibited by law. Yet, bullying of younger students by older (senior) students at the blind side of teachers is not uncommon among students in places like Toronto. There have been and continue to be instances whereby older students have coerced younger students to buy them (older) lunch out of their (younger) pockets. Some younger students are made to share their lunch with bullying students under threats!





The worse situation is whereby group of three or more students team up to fight another student immediately after school due to a petty misunderstanding between the victim and one of the aggressive students (gang).





One could go on numerating a lot of these "little foxes" of students that parents need to be aware of and help "catch" them-lying, skipping classes, ignoring homework, coming to school unprepared, bullying, swearing, showing attitude and vandalizing school property as well as disrespecting others. Teachers have moral and professional responsibility to protect students and they need the unflinching support of parents/guardians in this task. I couldn't agree the more with the celebrated author Austin Clarke on his assertion that teaching elementary school is the most important stage in the process of the training of our youth. "Let's catch them whilst they are young." Together we build, divided we destroy!


Note to Parents on Curriculum Nights: Most schools organize curriculum nights for the parents of their students at the beginning of the school year. During such nights expectations of the school around the curriculum and student behavior are clearly explained enabling parents to assist the schools for student success! Serious parents make it to such nights! Please, be one of them. Look out for your child’s school curriculum night. A word to the wise is enough!