My wife and I are foster parents and have been for the past four years. We have raised four daughters and now we have two sets of siblings that we have adopted. Let's start with Donald. Donald was in 1st grade when he first came to live with us. Donald is a very smart little boy, but when he first came to live with us he struggled in school and his hand writing was terrible. His parents didn't really get involved in his education and really their attitude was holding Donald back. We have always been very involved in our kids education and really pushed them to give their very best effort. So when Donald, came into our home, we really had to take a step back. It took a couple of months, but once we started working with Donald and letting him know school was important, his handwriting drastically improved and his grades turned around.
Next came Melonie and Raymond. They too had came from homes where school just wasn't that important. Melonie was in 4th grade and Raymond was in 3rd. They were lucky just to attend class and they had fallen way behind. When they came to live with us, we really had our work cut out for us. We sat down with them nearly every night and worked to try to help get them caught up. Neither of them could write in cursive and their printing was illegible. They have now been with us two years and we are finally starting to see some improvement.
Our message to them was simply "School's Cool". We put an emphasis on education and showed the willingness to work with them. This was something that they were seriously lacking in their home environment. A lot of people had already given up on them and some actually thought they just weren't capable. By taking an active role in a child's education and working with them you can help them reach their full potential. But if your attitude is one, that you just don't care then the child will develop the same attitude and most likely will struggle.
Chuck Harper
