It has been estimated that as many as 1 in 5 children underachieve in school.
What does that mean?
It means that 20% of children do not perform in accordance with their age or talents. In other words they have unfulfilled potential.
It is difficult to identify underachievers as there is no specific test that shows a child is underachieving. Identification is based on experience and knowing children over a long period of time. So who is the best person to know when a child is underachieving in school?
Perhaps not the teacher who may not have known the child in question for more than a few months.
Perhaps not the child who might just think they are too stupid to learn.
Perhaps not the doting relatives who think that whatever the child does is wonderful.
So who?
The best person to know if a child is underachieving is someone who has had a close relationship with the child over many years. Someone who knows the child well, and knows how he behaves and what he is capable of doing. Someone who can observe the child in many different situations and at close quarters.
Who could that be?
Well, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the best person to know when a child is underachieving is a parent – usually a mother because, even in this day of gender equality, it is often the mothers who are the ones helping with homework, talking to the child’s teacher, watching a child’s self esteem disintegrate.
Mom’s know.
They just know. They watch, and they worry and they know when their child is struggling to learn. I have learned to trust a Mom’s intuition even when I do not see a problem in class.
Mom’s know. And if you know that you child ‘could do better’ you must act, and act quickly, to stop your child’s self esteem from spiraling downwards and turning a small problem into a major learning issue.
