Effectively communicating with your high school child is critical for his or her academic success. For some, being a high school parent is a brand-new experience which comes with the challenges and tensions of their child transitioning from dependence to becoming an independent learner. Others may have one or more children already on the conveyor belt and yet feel uncertain about their latest high school newbie. In truth, emotions can be varied. They range from excitement and relief to concern, but also to deep feelings of worry, and sometimes, despair.
So, why is the high school experience potentially so fraught with anxiety? How does a parent maintain an even keel through choppy waters and maintain their sanity? Hang in there, the answer is coming. First some key bits ‘n pieces, then the how to …
Stages of Human Growth and Development
The 6 years in high school is like any stage of human growth and development. It is basically about learning. This is true whether its infancy, toddler years, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, or old age, it’s about learning. Consequently, high school students need sound study planning skills (time management skills; goal settings skills), effective note-making; note-taking skills), focused reading skills, and sophisticated memorizing skills. These become critical in learning to navigate the current stage and to prepare for the next stage.
It follows that how well the student learned in the previous growth stages impacts her or his transition to adolescence and high school – the prospect of entering high school should be really, really exciting. Most of us couldn’t wait to be teenagers! However, others simply dread leaving the womb of primary school, and the transition to high school becomes an overwhelming experience, and communicating with them is really difficult and challenging.
Higher Levels of Thinking
Still, high school, presents a new stage, a new beginning. An exciting time of new learning and the opportunity for the development of new study habits to process new information and processes. Students apply logic and deduction and shift from concrete thinking to hypothetical thinking. Students stuck in the concrete modes of thinking continually achieve low marks in tests and examinations.
The Real Challenge
As schools are about change and transition in learning, it follows that high school parenting is also about change and transition in learning. In reality, high school classroom learning activities are typically driven by syllabus content. Consequently, little time is allocated to exploring study skills.
Learning how-to-learn effectively is usually the missing tool in the low achiever’s toolbox. The elephant in the room, one might say. Lots of activity. Little independent learning.
Okay, so how do you effectively communicate with your teenager through this challenging transition?
See Part 2 …
