Visit Student’s Home
NORMA D. TAOPO
Visiting students’ homes often prevents many discipline problems that might otherwise arise because when students are visited at home, parents often feel closer to the teacher and, consequently, adamant about their students behaving ’in that teacher’s classroom. I am not suggesting that is fair or proper on the part of the parents. What I am suggesting is that being human, we tend to be more compassionate toward people whom we know than toward people we don’t know. Obviously every parent ought to send their children to school in a mind-set toward cooperating with every teacher. The fact is, that does not happen. The fact is also that parents and teachers who know each other are more cooperative than parents and teachers who do not know each other. One of the simple ways to bridge the gap is to simply arrange for a home visit.
Now in terms of the kinds of home visit I am discussing here, I am suggesting here, I am suggesting that the visit be early in the school year, be congenial in nature, and not as a result of a child doing something wrong. Be brief and be informational. The reason I suggest that it be a congenial visit is because the receptivity on the part of the parents is a lot greater when a teacher informs them that they would like to come over to discuss what is expected of the child and to and to ask what is expected of the teachers than if the teachers says, “I need to come and see you because your child is disrupting the class.” The reason that I suggest that the visit be brief because(1) many people do not have a lot of time to discuss informational kind of things, and (2) the likelihood that a teacher will be welcomed back into the home may, indeed, be enhanced by teachers realizing that they should not stay too long on the first visit.
The parent needs to understand that there is a purpose for this visit. The information that needs to be shared, for instance, would be the mission of the school, the school rules, the kinds of supplies that the that the student needs to bring t school on a daily basis, what is expected of the parents in case of emergency, and how the parent can get in touch with the teacher in case the parent can get in touch with the parents. Parents are the most important stakeholder in Education.