Monday 21 November 2016

Excessive Parental Pressure Can Cause Grades to Drop

The highly competitive nature of the world that children will grow into, is reflected in the pressure that even young children face in schools today. The need for good grades as a stepping stone to adult success means that parents often put pressure on their children to keep doing better, thereby adding to the stress.  The intention is, of course, good; but the desire to spare their children from the disappointment of not getting into Universities of their choice, can cause what is known as “academic anxiety”, an all-pervasive feeling that every grade must be improved on and each test result must be better than the last.

Stress and Anxiety in Kids

There is value in the old belief that parents must aim high for their children to channel their energies towards success. However, a study involving 12,000 American children and their parents has found that “Unrealistically high aspiration may hinder academic performance. Simply raising aspiration cannot be an effective solution to improve success in education.” Pushing children too hard has the opposite effect – they often do worse and their grades drop. One reason for this is that the inability to meet parents’ expectations leads children to develop a poor self-image. A research by the Journal of Child and Family Studies has found that over managing and excessive pressure to get excellent grades causes children to have “higher levels of depression, decreased satisfaction with life and lower levels of autonomy and competence.” Parents want to be supportive but often they inadvertently end up undermining their children’s sense of self-esteem and confidence.

Providing Support, Not Pressure

Parents should remember that academic success is the road to achievement in life, and not an end in itself. There are many reasons why a child may not do well in some subjects. These range from a natural disinclination to not having grasped the fundamentals correctly, to simple fear of failure after not having done well in a test, among others. These problems can be overcome, but not with pressure. Providing children with the learning support they need to improve their performance is the solution. This can be done by creating a stress-free atmosphere at home where the issue of poor grades is not constantly weighing upon a child and by working with the child to help them overcome their problems. However, care must be taken to ensure that “working with” does not become a crutch that the child cannot do without.

Tutoring Is the Solution

Using a professional tutoring academy would provide the child with the balanced academic support, as the trained teachers are aware of the type of guidance that should be provided without deflecting from the regular educational system of the educational boards.  Qualified tutors with the required domain knowledge and experience in working with young children will be able to provide the age appropriate one-on-one support that will be most effective and beneficial. Professional tutors know how to provide the knowledge that is required, support its internalization and application and do it in a manner that sparks interest in the subject and avoids placing unwanted pressure on each child.

If your child is having problems in getting good grades, contact a tutoring academy and talk to them about the problems. Enrolling your child there will give him or her the stress-free environment where curiosity is ignited and learning becomes fun. The results will be seen in the improved grades.

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