Now that school is back in full swing and teachers have become acquainted with their students, more and more parents are receiving notes and calls from their children’s teachers. These calls are rarely a good thing, and are often to address behavioral problems the child may be having.
Many parents will react to these phone calls by punishing the child for their poor behavior. While this is the correct response in some situations, it is important to thoroughly assess the situation before placing all of the blame of your student.
If your child is struggling with behavior issues in a public school environment, you will want to consider all possibilities for their behavior before making any moves. There are many reasons for acting out in school, and most are not linked to your child being inherently naughty. Here are the questions you will want to ask yourself—and possibly your child—before moving ahead with resolving the situation.
- Are they bored? This is the first thing to find out. A bored child will be quick to cause disruptions as they seek out something to entertain themselves. Often, gifted children are labeled as “naughty” when in reality they simply need more challenge and less busywork.
- Do they learn and focus better while moving? It has been scientifically proven that many (if not the majority of) children learn and focus better while moving about. If your child is wiggling in the classroom, it’s highly likely they are actually paying attention the best way they know how.
- Are the looking for attention? As school budgets shrink and class sizes grow, many children are feeling left behind due to their inability to keep up, pushed to the side as they learn more quickly than others and require less attention, or stuck in the middle as they work through their lessons with little to no one-on-one attention. Many lessons are taught to the majority, meaning there is little in a class to spark your child’s interest, leaving them wiggly, disruptive, and seeking attention in order to make their school experience more interesting.
- Is your child easily distracted by peers? Let’s face it, sitting for hours at a time in a room full of one’s peers, but not being allowed to talk, could cause anyone to be distracted. After all, who wouldn’t want to chat with their best friend when he or she is sitting nearby?
Once you discover the reason behind your child’s disruptive behavior, you can work toward a solution. Unfortunately, very few public school teachers have the time or resources at their disposal to truly change a given child’s school experience. While many will try, and you may be perfectly capable of finding an acceptable compromise, it may be best to consider switching to a private school if the problems continue.
There are many ways a private school can help your disruptive child become a more focused and excited student. Here are some ways the issues listed above could easily be addressed in a one-on-one private school setting.
- Boredom — Boredom is easily addressed when your child is working one-on -one with his or her teacher. Lessons can be tailored to suit your child’s needs, and working at an accelerated pace in particular areas is not a problem at all. Additionally, a student’s personal interests can easily be woven into the lesson plan to make class time a more engaging experience.
- Need to Move — In a one-on-one setting, children can bounce and fidget as much as they need to. There are no other students to distract with their movements, making the wiggling a perfectly acceptable option during lessons.
- Craving for Attention — Obviously, one-one-one lessons and smaller group class sizes will automatically address any issues your child may have been having with attention-seeking behavior. When your child is in his or her private lessons, all eyes are on them, making acting out for attention completely uncalled for.
Private lessons, small class sizes, and strict dress codes make peer distractions less common in private school settings. Class clowns and chatterboxes no longer have reason to talk during class, and can instead focus on the task at hand.
If you are interested in enrolling your child in a one-on-one private school in order to address behavioral issues, please contact us today at Tenney School. We would be happy to provide you with the information you need to make the best choice for your family and your child.