Younger and younger children are coming home from school with projects to complete. For many very young children, the task is often beyond their capability. They lack the ability to organise a project, do the necessary research and present it in a way which best suits what they have been assigned.
So, a small child is given a project which they are not equipped to handle and shows their parents. They know that their child is unable to perform the task at hand and desperately want their child to succeed. Unfortunately, not many parents are teachers and most do not have the time to teach their children how to complete a project. So, they end up doing the project themselves. The best grade in the class will then be based on which child has the most creative parents.
The result of this situation is a good grade, but extremely poor learning. All the child ends up learning is that their mother can be manipulated into completing all of their projects.
This problem is not isolated to very young children, because as children grow older, their teachers believe that they have the capability to complete projects and the situation is never rectified.
As a teacher, it is your responsibility to make sure that your class is ready for the task which you assign to them. Provide them with all the necessary information and teach them the skills which are needed to complete the task correctly.
Parents should be encouraged to take an interest in their child’s school work, but should also be prepared to allow their children to try and, sometimes, fail. If a child tries to complete their project in five minutes, they will receive a poor grade – this is an important lesson to learn and the child should not be deprived of this learning curve. As they put more and more effort into their work, grades will improve and they will have learnt important lessons which they will carry with them for life.
Teachers have a responsibility to teach the children in their class and allowing parents to complete the projects which have been assigned to their children is unacceptable. It is not difficult to notice when a parent is earning the grade and not the child. And, if you need to educate the parents on the subject of their child’s responsibilities, then take the time to do that.