Good Parenting Can Help Improve Your Child's Education

Parenting healthy children means that your children do
well, or at least okay, educationally, and like learning.
Parents know schooling is important for a child's success
in life, but just exactly why is education important? What are
the facts?


  1. Reportedly, college graduates make 100% higher pay than
    high school graduates.

  2. Brain power every day is becoming far more important
    than brawn power, even in blue collar jobs. For example,
    auto mechanics need to read and interpret manuals and
    computer printouts. To do this they need more schooling
    than mechanics of the past.

  3. Increased schooling develops verbal skills, which are
    important in general, and, especially, in managerial
    positions.

  4. Attending college or university helps one perform the
    day to day tasks of life more effectively, like locating
    the right doctor, searching for a good investment, finding
    a new job, or working out family challenges.

  5. Schooling helps one develop new interests in life that
    may be entertaining or allow one to enter a new occupation.

  6. Schooling leads to more job opportunities and a wider
    choice of jobs. Therefore, it is correlated with job
    satisfaction.

Good parenting can help improve a child's school success.
However, first, a parent must understand what education
is. Another way of saying it: A parent must understand
just what is happening to his child when that child is
learning in school. You may be surprised to discover
schooling may not be, exactly, what you think it is.

Is education what you think it is? Click here, to find out.

 By making learning fun, children realize learning is fun.
Is preschool the most important grade? Click here.
Once you discover what schooling is all about, then you
need to discover what learning is? Click the above, what
is education link, to find out.

Understanding the difference between education and learning
could lead to a revelation that might result in the
positive parenting necessary to help your child succeed.

Positive parenting can improve success in school if you
know why most kids fail. Click here to discover the most
common reason children fail to do well in school.

 Want to help improve your children's chance for success in
school? Get help now by reading this article on parent
and teacher communication.
For things you can do at home to improve your child's
chances for school success, click here.

 Bored child? Surprise him out of the rut by making learning fun
with playful parenting.

 Good parenting is critical to school success. Click here,
for the parenting advice page.
Click here for information on how to help your child get
good grades now.

 Click here, for surprising facts about public education.

 To help readers evaluate their children's learning
experience both in school and at home, I've included an
important article by the famed neuroanatomist and
researcher, Dr. Marian Diamond.

In her article, "What are the Determinants of Children's
Academic Successes and Difficulties?" Dr. Diamond lists
a number of important points pertinent to the education
of our children. As you read her recommendations,
notice where your child's education meets her recipe and
where it doesn't.

Dr. Diamond writes:


"Our recipe for an enriched environment to determine
academic success:


  1. Includes setting the stage for enriching the cortex by
    first providing a steady source of positive emotional
    support - love, encouragement, warmth and caring. Our old
    rats live longer with tender loving care.

  2. Provides a nutritious diet with enough protein,
    vitamins, minerals and calories. We have shown that with a
    low protein diet during development the branches on the
    nerve cells in the cortex do not flourish to be able to
    respond to an enriched condition.

  3. Stimulates all the senses, but not necessarily all at
    once. A multisensory enrichment develops all of the cortex;
    whereas, an input from a single task stimulates the growth
    of only a precise area of the brain. One example, growing
    up responsibly on a farm surrounded by clean fresh air with
    all of its multisensory input supplies a wealth of varied
    stimuli to develop a cortex

  4. Has an atmosphere free of undue pressure and stress
    but suffused with a degree of pleasurable intensity

  5. Presents a series of novel challenges that are neither
    too easy nor too difficult for the child at his or her
    stage of development

  6. Allows for social interaction for a significant
    percentage of activities; there is no doubt peers are
    intrigued with and enjoy each other.

  7. Promotes the development of a broad range of skills
    and interests that are mental, physical, aesthetic, social
    and emotional

  8. Gives the child an opportunity to choose many of his
    or her own activities. Allow each unique brain to choose.

  9. Gives the child a chance to assess the results of his
    or her efforts and to modify them. As he builds sand
    castles on the beach and admires his construction before a
    wave destroys them and he needs to learn to start over and
    resculpt.

  10. An enjoyable atmosphere that promotes exploration and
    the fun of learning; rats living in enriched environments
    are more exploratory than those living in
    impoverishment.

  11. Above all, enriched environments allow the child to be
    an active participant rather than a passive observer; a
    healthy body will have the energy to become involved.

A nonenriched, impoverished environment, which can cause
difficulties and a lack of success, will tend to be
opposite in most of these ways, including:


  1. A vacillating or negative emotional climate

  2. A diet low in protein, vitamins, and minerals, and too
    high or too low in calories

  3. Sensory deprivation

  4. High levels of stress and pressure

  5. Unchanging conditions lacking in novelty

  6. Long periods of isolation from caregivers and/or peers

  7. A heavy, dull atmosphere lacking in fun or in a sense
    of exploration and the joy of learning

  8. A passive, rather than active involvement in some or
    all activities

  9. Little personal choice of activities

  10. Little chance to evaluate results or effects and
    change to different activities

  11. Development in a narrow, not panoramic, range of
    interests"

A few notes, regarding Dr. Diamonds recommendations are:


  • Dr. Diamond placed a positive emotional educational
    environment at the top of the list as an aid to
    learning.

  • From Dr. Diamond's recommendations, can you see how the
    increased emphasis on rote learning in our educational
    system could be harming our children's learning?

  • From studying Dr. Diamond's list, can you note any
    possible reasons why your child may be having trouble in
    school?

We end this section with a final note from Dr. Diamond.
She says:


"Let me take one example, when it comes to providing toys
and activities for young children, there is, in general an
inverse relationship between the specificity and
elaborateness of a toy and its ability to excite the
imagination. A cast-off cardboard box can become a doll
house, a puppet stage, a school or an alien planet. Tools
for exploring, a magnifying glass, an old tape recorder, a
map, can open doors in the mind, as can the artifacts of
make believe. The more pressure the parent puts on a child
to produce something specific, the harder it is for the
child to express creativity and imagination.

All of these have their role to play in brain development.
BUT we have also learned that too much stimulation is
detrimental. The cerebral cortex does not show significant
growth with too much stimulation as it does with a moderate
amount. The brain needs time to transfer information into
its association cortex. Allow the child time to think about
what is happening and what is coming next. Allow for ample
free time too. Creative efforts need time to utilize what
has been stored in the brain. DO NOT OVER STIMULATE."


Dr. Diamond's recipe is backed by years of research. What's
more, it makes sense. As you read other articles in this
education section, as well as the parenting section, refer
back from time to time to Dr. Diamond's recipe for academic
success. I think you will note how positive parenting,
playful parenting, "sooner" than possible counseling, etc.,
complement Dr. Diamond's recipe and help increase a child's
chances for academic success.





Consider buying my book as a donation to keep this web site
alive. "THE METHOD" is a no nonsense, no hype, 36 page
study guide, detailing proper study skills, so you can get
good grades now, or pass almost any type of exam.
Click "THE METHOD" tab for more information.


footer for education page