Three Reasons You Must Make A Surprise Visit To Your Child’s School

When a business or government leader wants to check on how their organization or agency is doing, they often institute surprise inspections. Management of these organizations and agencies know that they are more likely to discover what’s really going on when inspections are a surprise.

Surprise inspections differ from announced inspections because those being reviewed have no idea when the inspection is coming. Thus, employees are not able to cover up mismanagement, hide defective products and services, or repair the outstanding mistakes and errors. Quite simply, surprise inspections provide a clear and accurate depiction of the state of the agency or organization.

What A Lovely Surprise

If surprise inspections can help business and government function efficiently and effectively, maybe it’s time for parents to make surprise school visits a part of their S.P.P. (Standard Parenting Procedure). After all schools are generally both businesses and government agencies. Likewise, parents are both the investors (taxpayers and payers of tuition) and controlling partners (voters and legal guardians) of our children’s schools.

Parents who prefer not to be surprised by declining educational outcomes or increasingly flawed teacher performance would be wise to make surprise visits to their children’s school routine. A surprise visit provides parents with a better picture of the learning environment and realistic depiction of our children’s behavior.

Don’t Faint Surprise

For some parents the idea of making a surprise visit to our children’s school will feel like an invasion of privacy – a sign of distrust. My retort to this perspective is “so what”! Our children are our most precious and prized possession so it’s perfectly acceptable if we act like our children are our most precious and prized possessions and stay alert and vigilant about their academic performance and behavioral conduct.

Rather than being continuously and consistently alert and vigilant, many parents prefer to faint surprise when they get a bad report card, receive the results of a below average standardized test or answer the phone call from the local authorities. Paying more attention to our businesses, jobs, cars, homes and other material possessions than we do our children is a sure fire way to raise children who are later surprised that poor school performance has left them with few academic options and severely limited their employment opportunities.

Be Prepared Not Surprised

If by some unfortunate chance you are a parent who feels like making unannounced school visits is beneath you, like spying or too time consuming, below I have detailed three reasons why you should get over yourself and schedule surprise visits immediately and intermittently.

1.  Make sure your children are where they are supposed to be – namely in class. Truancy is a major issue in American schools. There isn’t a lot of national data on truancy but the existing data shows in some school districts – particularly large and urban – thousands of unexcused absences are reported daily.

The consequences of truancy are extensive: academic underperformance, increased dropout rate, alcohol and drug abuse, teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, etc. Our children can’t achieve academically when they aren’t in school. Help your child succeed by making sure they are in class. Make a surprise visit to their school.

2.  Make sure your children are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Children can find it difficult to say no to peers and are often led astray by others. However, children are less inclined to be misguided by negative peer influences when parents are actively involved in their children’s lives. Making surprise school visits is another way to be actively involved in your child’s life.

Surprise visits provide an opportunity to see not only how your children behave away from home – to determine if they are upholding your household standards – but surprise visits also afford you the opportunity to see who your children call friends. Surprise visits remind both your child and friends alike that your child has standards to uphold and that in your home parental expectations will always trump peer pressure.

3.  Make sure teachers and administrators realize your child has an involved, concerned parent-guardian. Research indicates that schools and children are more successful when parents are involved. Making surprise visits is just one of the many ways to let teachers and school administrators know that you have high expectations for your child.

The age old idiom “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” remains true. If you want your child to achieve more (better grades, higher test scores, less absenteeism); have better self-esteem; exercise more self-discipline; and develop and maintain high aspirations and motivation don’t ignore the value of surprise visits. Others are more accountable to your children when you are the most responsible for your own children. Make your presence known at school and let everyone know what you expect from and for your child.

Stay Alert

Making surprise visits will not only keep your children on their toes but it will help remind your child’s academic and behavior partners about the need to stay alert. Surprise visits will serve as a reminder for everyone including you of the need to have, set and achieve high expectations. Not to mention, if the Department of Child and Family Services can make surprise visits to your home, why shouldn’t you make surprise visits to your child’s school?

So while it’s fresh on your mind go ahead and plan a surprise visit to your child’s school. It’s okay too if you surprise your child with more than just your presence. Surprise them with lunch, their favorite snack, tickets to a movie, a big hug, a huge balloon or something else they may enjoy and symbolizes the love you have for them. Your child may not thank you for the surprise visit immediately but – trust me – they do appreciate the special attention and concern you will be showing them.

In the end, the goal is to raise your child’s expectations, prepare them to maximize their ability and lift their self-esteem. The visit may be a surprise to your child but it will be as clear as mud that what you are doing is something other children wish their parents would and need their parents to do.

When was the last time you paid a surprise visit to your child’s school? When was the last time you were present at school for something other than a parent-teacher conference?