Everyone has heard the old adage, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Well, my suggestion to you would be to forget this saying as quickly as you can. This doesn’t apply to your child’s school and their education. In fact, if you come in whining, crying, bitching, and moaning about what isn’t done, you are likely to achieve the exact opposite effect.

Instead, you want to follow the new adage, the helpful wheel gets the oil.

That’s right, UI Family, you cannot approach a school complaining about what isn’t being done or what should be done and expect to get the results you want. You are going to turn people off in the school and believe it or not, they will fight you. It is just a natural human response to attack when we are attacked. Therefore, you need a set of new tactics.

How To Ensure Your Child Will Get All The Benefits And Perks In School To Succeed

Here are a few ideas we want to share with you in order for you to get the most out of your schools. These tactics have been tried and tested by my family and I in public schools. In fact, we did this in a school district everyone told us was failing, not working for children, and we were actually encouraged not to move into this area.

How did things go for us? GREAT!

Our children skipped grades. Received the specialized attention they needed. In fact, each year, the school and teachers bent over backwards to either go up to higher grades to retrieve challenging work for our children or allow them to go up to higher grades for certain specific subjects to get the lessons they need. We have always believed smart children idol in class, not learning could turn into problem children because of boredom or are wasting away being the “teacher helper.

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These options are not acceptable to us, so we felt we needed to do something to ensure our children are constantly challenged. However, instead of whining and pointing out the negative, here is what we did and suggest you to do as well.

1. Volunteer

That’s right. Get off your backside, sacrifice, alter your schedule and volunteer in the schools. Here is a secret. The school officials and teachers know they are undermanned, challenged and need to work better, but they need help. Get in there, roll up your sleeves, and work with them.

Attend the field trips being a chaperon, assist the teacher in class, work the dance, help out during field day. In short, get into the school, show your face, and be known as one of the solutions in the community and school, instead of just being another parent on the sidelines complaining about something needing to be done.

2. Join the PTO

This is taking the volunteer effort to the next level. Getting on the PTO let’s everyone know you are one of the serious parents in the district and willing to take it to the next level to help the teachers and administrators do more in the schools. Again, this helps grow your reputation as a solution parent and not a problem parent.

Also, you may not know this, but at many PTO organizations the school officials attend these meetings along with the teachers. Therefore, this is an opportunity to get face time with your teachers, principals, deans and admins outside of your child “messing up” or “doing wrong”. This allows you to build a quality relationship with the people impacting your child’s education and a chance for them to associate you as a solution parent, not problem again.

3. Know Everyone

Between volunteering, the PTO and other possible organizations you can join, this will allow you to know everyone in the school. I’m talking about everyone. Speak to the janitor, the teacher aids, other parents, gym teachers, secretaries, admin help, everyone!

You are building your reputation, again, as a solution parent. Someone who wants the right thing for all the children in the school, the teachers, and administration.

This will go a long way for you and your child getting the benefit of the doubt or extra assistance when needed.

4. Ask

The final step in this task list is to ask. Sometimes you have to ask for what you want and need. Don’t just accept the status quo as fate for your child. You have to take the shot. Your child’s education is worth it.

We were in a situation with my son’s 5th grade teacher wasn’t getting the job done. She wasn’t challenging him at all. The problem with this was she was the “high math” teacher in the school. Instead of just accepting that was it and we had no options, we went to the Principal and asked what could be done.

To our surprise, the Principal said why don’t we send him to the Jr. High each morning for math classes and back to his 5th grade classroom afterwards. The Principal worked with the Jr. High Principal, admin and teachers to arrange a schedule for my son and pulled it off.

No, this didn’t just come out the blue. My wife and I had been working in the district for 6 years prior to this. We had built relationships with everyone in the school, all the way to the top, the Superintendent. Don’t want you to think you can just walk in and change the game, but if you apply yourself, dedicate time to the school, teachers and your child’s future, then the fruits of this labor will pay off for you as well.