Never underestimate the power of our teachers

 

My eldest son is now 24 years of age, so I’ve been attending ‘Parent’s Day’ for the past 19 years. Each one has been an eye opener and on each occasion I learned something new about my boys. As a mother we always think we know best. No one else could possibly know our children better than us. Or could they?

 

As I discovered all those years ago, they certainly could. Their teacher gets to know a side of our children which we do not. They get to see how children interact with others; how they deal with issues among their peers; how they deal with problems in the playground, and how they deal with their own personal issues.

 

On that first ‘Parent’s Day’ I recall the teacher telling me how my son was very mature for his age and was a great help to others in his class who were not so mature. I was shocked. My little boy was just five years old and I’d never witnessed him being any different to his friends.

 

His teacher pointed out that it was clear that he was the eldest in the family and it showed in how he cared for others around him. I left that day feeling very proud of the boy. He had attributes I knew nothing about.

 

My middle boy was just seven years old and on this particular ‘Parent’s Day’ his teacher told me how he had a great flair for maths. Shocked again, I was a little taken aback. How did I not know this? Apparently my decision to give him weekly pocket money had added to his mathematical ability. And it was showcasing itself in class.

 

My youngest son was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was nine years old. Again the teacher suggested the possibility to me on that year’s ‘Parent’s Day’. I was aghast. How could I not possibly have known this about my youngest boy? Soon after he was assessed and indeed confirmed that he is ‘dyslexic’.

 

So as I went along to my last ever Parent’s Day just last week, I was prepared to yet again learn something new about the youngest boy, now a grown young man at 17. What would I learn that day?

 

“Your son has been a lovely young man in our school for the past six years”, his class teacher told me.

 

“We have watched him grow and develop into a funny, cheeky and yet very dedicated student.”

 

Is this really the same young man who leaves his dishes lying around, forgets to make his bed, and has an endless overflowing bin in his room?

 

I left the school that evening with a smile firmly planted on my face and a tear shedding from my eye. My ‘Parent’s Days’ are now over. I’ve had the last one. And on each of the said days I really did learn something new about each boy. Will we ever really know our children?

 

We get to know as much as we can and there’s always that extra little bit that someone else will know. As parents we like to think we know it all. But as each teacher showed me, they get to know that other side to our kids. They see that something extra.

 

Never underestimate the power of our teachers. They are not perfect but they do bring out that extra something in our kids.

 

For the past 19 years I’ve learned something new from them about my boys. And for that I thank them. 

 

Grainne McCool is a mum to three boys from Co. Donegal, who thinks parenting is a learning process in which you're never done learning.