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PARENTING

5 Things You as a Parent Can Do to Help Your Child:

And in turn, help your child’s teacher

Janaka Stagnaro
13 min readJun 28, 2020

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A mother holds up her young child upon a beach. The ocean is calm. The clouds swirl in the sunset.
Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

For over twenty-five years, I have been both a parent and a teacher. I have been a class teacher in the Waldorf system, in the private, charter, and public school settings. In a Waldorf school teachers have the joy and responsibility of advancing with the class. This way, after years with the same children and the same parents, of course, we get to know each other really well. In the small schools I have taught in, we became more like a family. And, as in all families, all kinds of dysfunctional tendencies will rear their heads.

Every family I have had the privilege to work with have their strengths and challenges. I, and most of my colleagues (if not all), will say what I am saying right now: I love working with my students. They help me maintain a young spirit. Sure, many can be very challenging, but there is a love that blossoms between teacher and student.

Working with the parents, on the other hand, (and remember, I am one of you) is the tricky part. It is part of the job that can be the opposite of rejuvenating. I have seen many a teacher either come close to quitting or doing so because of a parent. I have been one of those teachers.

Parents can be excellent…

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Janaka Stagnaro
Janaka Stagnaro

Written by Janaka Stagnaro

Poetry, parables, articles — spiritual, life-lessons, Waldorf education, artwork. 11 books. www.janakasartandbooks.com

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