Academic competence is a necessary, however not sufficient, ingredient to success in school. Most students are taught to rely on their teachers for information and guidance, but this is only a piece of the educational puzzle. Teachers can never be considered a knowledge provider in and of themselves. Teachers require support from parents, other teachers, other administrators, etc. If you want your child to thrive in school, you will need to provide that support.
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Parents may know very little about teaching and school, but they certainly know a great deal about their own children. They can ask teachers questions, play with them in class, and listen intently when they speak. It is through this kind of caring that academic competence can be instilled. By contrast, if you spend most of your time trying to figure out how best to teach your children, you are less likely to create an environment where they thrive.

There are a variety of reasons why parents and teachers may differ in their view of academic competence. Some parents want their children to do well academically so they work harder and longer, believing that this makes them better teachers. Other parents want their kids to have fun and be successful so they give them less attention and/or are less involved with them. Still other parents believe that it is important to get students to feel connected to the school and to be responsive to their needs.

When it comes to academic competence, the opinions may well vary. Your job as a parent is to look at each of these perspectives objectively and decide what is best for your child. You should know that no one can know your child better than you do, so you must use all the information that you can gather to determine his or her academic potential. Your child may be excellent academically but be very shy. Perhaps, that shyness has been caused by negative experiences in the family or by not having a firm grasp of academics in the first place.

Once you have established what constitutes academic competence, you need to take steps to let your child know that you think that he or she is on the right track. Talk to your child about what he or she is doing right and wrong. Make academic success a priority and find out what you can do to help your child. If you think that your child has special needs or is struggling, speak with a teacher or a specialist in special education.

There are a number of ways to measure your child's academic competence. You can ask your child about his or her test scores. You might want to know what his or her GPA scores are and what kind of academic coursework is being taken. Parents and teachers can also work together on revising ways to teach curriculum and educational standards and to make academic competencies more relevant to what children need to know.

When you have established the basics of academic competence in your child, there are some other things that you need to consider. For one thing, you need to decide how you will give him or her time for school. Many kids, especially those who are just starting school, need a lot of time just to get used to going to school. If this is the case for your child, talk with him or her about how much school he or she actually needs. You might also want to make sure that you are giving him or her enough time to prepare for his or her upcoming academic year.

Finally, if you have already established academic competence in your child, you will need to help him or her develop teaching skills. This is actually quite easy to do. All you need to do is provide your child with materials that he or she will use and keep him or her interested in class. Help your child develop reading, writing, and understanding skills as well as their classroom performance.