I couldn’t agree more. At the risk of seeming like a helicopter parent myself, I am very involved in my kids’ education (and my kids do have two doctors for parents).

However, I do take a slightly different approach to poor grades. When my son (never happened with my daughter) would come home with a poor grade, rather than rush into the counselor’s office ready for a fight, I would review the work and have him do a better job, not for the grade but rather to force him to do his personal best the first time around. Call it a form of punishment if you will, eventually he caught on and put out his personal best the first time around. I commended his teachers that were on board with me and called him out on suboptimal work.

As parents, we also made sure that our kids were involved in some way with the lower-income community next door and that has translated into two teens that are hard workers, respectful and appreciative of their own situation.