It was the sigh of relief heard around the province.
The sanity of even the most saintlike parents starts to unravel after two months of summer holidays for the kids. There is only so much of "I'm bored!" "It's too hot!" and "There's nothing to eat!" from whiny kids that anyone can take before their brain overheats and they snap. Add in the pressure cooker of a teachers' strike, with an extra month of no school and no obvious end in sight to the horror movie The Cursed Summer of Endless Days, and no one can blame parents for being relieved at the end of hostilities.
That sigh of relief turns into fist pumps and shouts of joy this morning as the kids return for their first full day of classes today, after the 90-minute tease Monday that amounted to little more than an exercise in "I'm glad you missed us, we're back! I brought my pencil - give me something to write on!"
In the words of those modern philosophers Van Halen, it's parents who are "hot for teacher" today.
The strike by public school teachers exposed a basic but uncomfortable fact about the child minding role schools and teachers play in the lives of parents. Of course every parent wants their child to receive a broad education in a safe environment but schools also provide structure and supervision to their young wards and their parents, too. That structure allows children to socialize with other children and find out for themselves that other adults, not just their parents, are dumb and boring but are capable of impressively cruel forms of punishment and can twist words around to suit their evil purposes. That structure also allows parents a few hours a day to socialize with other adults (unless they're teachers!) and find out how bosses can be mean and twist words around. Developing a life that doesn't involve answering to their own name, rather than mom or dad, is key for many parents. That development is as important as children building a life that exists in their own orbit, outside of their home and family.
Put another way, school is great for children and an essential part of their development but it's also good for parents. The learning never stops and only the environment changes.
Unfortunately, too many parents have exploited this relationship, abdicating their parental responsibilities, partly out of faith in teachers and the education system but mostly out of laziness. They forget that the structure is not for their convenience, that teachers are not babysitters and that education happens at home as much or more as it happens at school. There is more to parenting than providing room and board, discipline, hugs, Band-Aids and birthday gifts. A bored child looking to the TV, the computer and the fridge for amusement and companionship is a failure of parenting, not education.
Parents have every right to be glad that their children, the apples of their eye or their bratty juvenile delinquents (depending on when you ask them), are back in school. This extra-long hiatus, however, should serve as a much-needed reminder that while learning the three Rs in a classroom is critical, so is the education offered at home.
The teachers strike may be over and classes may have resumed but that doesn't mean parents should be relaxing for one moment. The kids are starting two weeks late and will have to make that up in the curriculum. For Grade 11 and 12 students on a semester system, writing provincial exams and looking ahead to college and university careers, they will have both extra work and added stress to deal with.
Parents can do themselves, their children and their teachers a big favour by making themselves active participants in the education process. They can leave the formal learning to the teachers, especially the math sheets beyond the fifth grade. There is so much to teach kids, however, that can't be learned in a classroom. That subject is called life and parents have to be able to teach it, even while they're still learning it for themselves.
