Cooperation between home and school [Archives:2002/14/Last Page]
Written by
Abdulrahman Mutahhar
Translated by
Janet Watson
M How many times have I told you, Musida, that our childrens success and progress at school is dependent on proper cooperation between school and home. What I say goes in one ear, and comes straight out of the other!
Ma What are you going on about now! Im perfectly prepared to cooperate with the school and its teachers over whatever they want. But any cooperation can begin with the school and its teachers.
M And what do you mean by cooperate with the school and its teachers, Musida?
Ma In all ways! Ill go and teach the pupils instead of the teacher, and the teacher can come to work in the house and bake and knead and look after the children in my place. All we have to do is take turns with the teachers. They do one day, I do the next!
M Then youll only have done what you should have done in the first place! If only all mothers would adopt this sort of cooperation between home and school, then our pupils would begin to feel some sense of stability and reassurance and have more self-confidence, particularly with the examinations looming!
Ma Come on! Stop talking in riddles, and tell me whats eating you!
M You can see how much our younger childrens health has gone down recently, cant you?
Ma The children, my dearest, get really worried and concerned when the exams come up. They lose their appetite, cant sleep, and stop eating properly. God knows what the exam results will be like!
M Whats up with you, Musida! Whats making the children live in this sort of state, particularly with the exams coming up!
Ma Why dont you ask the teacher the same question, and see what answer she gives you!
M The teacher spoke without me asking her, Musida, and said that lack of cooperation between home and school was the main reason for the exhaustion, fear and sleeplessness which primary school pupils suffer from as the exams start to approach!
Ma And what form should this cooperation take when my children go to school dressed up to the nines, and absolutely fed up with everything to do with school!
M I dont know about that, but the poor pupils go to school with their sides numb and their necks and backs bent from the weight of the books they have to carry in their bags.
Ma You dont need to tell me! They come back from school with the same load, aching all over, and their bodies bent double. No sooner do they get in the house than they throw their bags down in the hall or wherever, and charge out to play or sit and watch television.
M Why dont you go and meet them, Musida, at least half way, and take their bags from them to relieve them of some of the burden. You havent got an office at the airport and tourists you need to attend to!
Ma Now if you had an airport and I opened an office there, it could be a family office!
M Im talking to you about the family atmosphere and the family office. Pupils leave the house carrying their bags, and when they leave the classroom they have two burdens: the first is because they cant understand the lesson, and the second is the bag which is breaking their backs. Then they go home to find noone who is prepared to sit and go over the lesson with them and explain the bits they hadnt understood in the classroom. And that is precisely the type of cooperation between home and school which is lacking, Musida!
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