How should parents handle a bad report card?

By: Christian Baer

Should students be punished for bad grades? Based on several interviews it is clear the way parents react to their child’s grades can further affect the child in a positive or negative way.

Punishment towards student has shown to not be affective. Many studies have shown that punishing students causes them to fear teachers or parents and not be motivated to learn. Punishing kids in the wrong way can even lead to mental problems like depression or anxiety.

Not only parents but teachers also treat students wrong. It is reported that in Nepal, 14% of children claimed to have dropped out of school because of fearing of their teachers.

Physical punishment is one of the worst ways to punish children.

Bad parenting can:

• Cause resentment
• Cause psychological damage
• Encourage self-centered behavior
• Encourage dishonesty
• Prevent them from developing their inner moral compass

So how should parents react to bad report cards? The right way to help children is to not threaten or blame them for something they have done. Also being a good model to children can benefit in their behavior. Taking away privilege's is a popular way parents react to bad report cards. Doing this will cause the student to put more effort into school because they have more time. Parents should do this without threatening the child because that will inflict fear. Also parents should try to to show too much anger when punishing a child because that will also inflict fear. One problem with taking away privilege's is that the student might then work harder just to get the privilege's back which means they have no real motivation to work in school. Also, Time-out is another popular way of punishment directed towards younger kids. Time-out is a good way of punishment for younger kids because it shows them what they did was wrong and because of that they have to stay in a certain spot and be excluded from the activities which the other children are participating in.

Parents should always makes sure the consequence is fair to the child. Parents should also always tell the child why what they did is wrong.

After conducting multiple interviews it shows that students have shown fear after getting a bad grade on their report card and wont tell their parents out of fear. These interviews have shown that most parents became angry after seeing the bad grade and some parents don't react after seeing this grade which is not good because this doesn't show the student that it is important to try in school.

Most students said that they think they should be praised for good grades but not rewarded. Praising students for good grades is a good way to show them that parents are happy with how the student have treated school. Some students said that they should be rewarded based on how good the grade was. For example, if a student got all A’s, they would be rewarded according to that.

This information has shown that students are heavily influenced by their parents and parents should be really careful when punishing a child. I think parents should appreciate how hard their child has worked and they should show the child praise. Praising the child will keep them more motivated to work.

I also think that schools should try to make learning more interactive and fun so students will be more motivated to learn. Teachers should try to connect with their students and treat them with respect so students will be more happy to learn and be in their class.

I have concluded that physical punishment is not a good way to punish a child for bad grades. Their are a lot more negative impacts that this has on the child. Their are other ways to punish the child and keep the child happy. Praising or rewarding the child for good grades can also motivate the child to work harder.

Punishing students dehumanizes them and causes a bad relationship between parents and teachers. Students will start to fear their parents and teachers which will interfere with their learning.

But at the end of the day,

“Learning is more important than grades” — Mr. Besner