Are your children puzzling over their studies? Do you see them struggling to do their homework? That’s good, and exactly as it should be. It may sound harsh, considering that a parent’s natural instinct is to rush to the rescue of his or her child. But when it comes to education, that protective instinct has a tendency to do far more harm than good. But first, let’s step back and see the picture in the proper context in order to clarify the argument. We try to provide our children with the best possible education in order to forge adults capable of independent thought, decisionmaking prowess, sound judgment, and armed with the skills to build successful careers.

More importantly, we want them to be self-reliant. Therefore, if you observe that your child is having trouble solving a problem, do you step in and help them solve it? No, because that would be the absolute worst thing you could do, and in the process undermine the entire purpose of education. Clearly, by bailing them out, we would actually be leaving them stranded and sending the wrong message: that when things get hard, someone else will jump to tackle the challenge. “Although we try to guide children toward more constructive behavior,” says Layal, a Grade 2 teacher, “unfortunately sometimes it’s the parents who need to be taught how to behave.” Dr. Nather Simhairi, principal of City International School agrees. “Schools should conduct seminars for parents to teach them about study skills, study environments and study habits,” he says. Unfortunately not many parents are interested, not do they take it seriously.

By Thomas El-Basha