We have been going off on a rant today. Sometimes, however, it’s important to shake up parents so you can see the big picture. We are entering a time of extreme polarity in our country. One of the things that goes into what makes a good parent is to focus on what really benefits your family. The education of your children needs to one of the highest priorities. This might seem like an obvious statement but the action step to achieve a level of competence in school isn’t as easy as you might think.

What makes a good parent now means you must set goals for you child to achieve in school. Just as society is polarizing so is the success rate in school. In school, we are seeing a skyrocketing dropout rate and pregnancy on the one end and intense achievement on the other. You, as a parent, are going to have to decide which way your student will go. How are you going to achieve excellence with your child?

What makes a good parent is to learn strategies on how to make sure your child achieves.

Steps to your child’s success in elementary school:

1. Your child should read with you and by themselves everyday.

2. Television should be limited to the weekend

3. Video games should be eliminated or at least limited to the weekend.

4. You should be talking with your child’s teacher what they recommend for speeding up their math achievements.

5. Apply those strategies regularly.

Steps to your child’s middle and high school success:

1. GPA, minimum 3.25, recommended is 3.5 or higher if going to college

2. Regular contact with your child’s teacher and guidance counselor to monitor how they are doing so problems don’t get too far along.

3. Take SAT multiple times.

4. Volunteering at different places, minimum 100 hours.

If you haven’t been watching the news, college tuitions will be going up regularly for now on because of the skyrocketing government debt. So if you want scholarship or grant money your child will have to be in the top 10% of their class. What makes a good parent is not talking about being a good leader to your children. It is living it.

Good luck,

Dr. Bocknek

Dr. Robert Bocknek is the problem solving expert for marriage, parents and families at www.takebackthehome.com and www.keyboard-culture-parenting.com. He can be reached at bocknek@takebackthehome.com. He is author of the “Take Back the Home course” and the “Learning how to Learn course” which can be seen at www.takebackthehome.com.

Continuing on with some political venting, I would like to move on to a different angle.

What makes a good parent, in regards to social problems and education, is being responsible in teaching your children about living within a budget, the value of the dollar, and that real values come from within and can’t be bought at the store. Real values and happiness come from parents teaching values that empower. Those values include ethics, responsibility and reasonable expectations based on contribution.

When I was looking at those students march at the Berkeley campus yesterday I couldn’t help but feeling that these kids had no connection between social problems and education as it related to their tuition. These kids were just upset that they would have to actually pay for the amazing education that they wanted. What makes a good parent is, when seeing their kids march, to teach them that the state is in financial trouble and that if they want to be part of that state they have to pay their part. What makes a good parent is to teach their kids that its good to want great things but that great things come with a price tag. America was built on excellence, but great things are earned, great things are created, great things are gotten through hard work. Great things are not an entitlement to be given just because you want it.

It is my opinion that the relationship between social problems and education has been one of the biggest unspoken problems facing America. What makes a good parent in regards to social problems and education is that education starts and finishes in the home. It is essential in the home to set the stage for your children that they are responsible to a) do well in school and b) there is no free ride and c) if you don’t you want to pay, there are a lot of scholarships to get if you work hard enough. It is not the government’s responsibility to pay for your college. Furthermore, when the government does pay some of it, it is because there is money in the budget to pay for it. So if you want money available then you need to vote for people who aren’t giving it away to every special interest group. Unfortunately, for those students marchings, the special interest groups are the teacher’s unions that keep wanting more.

Good luck,

Dr. Bocknek

Dr. Robert Bocknek is the problem solving expert for marriage, parents and families at www.takebackthehome.com and www.keyboard-culture-parenting.com. He can be reached at bocknek@takebackthehome.com. He is author of the “Take Back the Home course” and the “Learning how to Learn course” which can be seen at http://www.takebackthehome.com .

Winston Churchill once wrote “If you aren’t liberal as a youth, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a conservative as an adult, you have no brain. We are coming into the time where our country will reach a period of reasonably rational thought or a period of seeing the greatest country, maybe of all time, fall into the dark ages.

As I watched the students demonstrate I wanted to be there, not to join them, but to ask them why they think the tuition is going up and what role they, themselves, played in it happening. From the intensity of the march and the taking over of the building, I’m thinking it never occurred to them that they, and their fellow Californians, who voted for the present state and federal government, helped create, or completely created the tuition hike that they are marching against.

Social problem and education collide when there is no connection of education to the realities of economics. This coming year, California will have a 23 billion dollar budget deficit. How do the students think this state is going to pay for it? The UC campus is a state funded system. Do we think that at any time someone taught the students that states, like families have only so much money to live on? If a family spends more than it has it will go bankrupt, so too the state. If we keep electing officials, who think that their job is to get elected rather than serve the public and the only way to do that is to pander to special interest groups, in this case the teacher’s unions and the labor unions that have pension plans and ins. plans that only the richest Americans can afford then the students will eventually have to pay for it. Hence, we have the present clash of social problems and education.

Now, I’m not so cold hearted to not want every American to do well. I have 3 kids in college myself next year. Although, I am literally freaking out about my finances for this situation, I don’t delude myself as to the cause of the price hike. American colleges have not moved to the place they ought to be, namely a place where truth is told. Liberal arts are great, but students should also be taught that fiscal responsibility is just as important.

Social problems and education have never been more connected than the dramatic increase in tuition we are all going to face.

Good luck,

Dr. Bocknek

Dr. Robert Bocknek is the problem solving expert for marriage, parents and families at www.takebackthehome.com and www.keyboard-culture-parenting.com. He can be reached at bocknek@takebackthehome.com. He is author of the “Take Back the Home course” and the “Learning how to Learn course” which can be seen at www.takebackthehome.com.