Yvonne Fournier

Unless students have continued to keep their skills sharp throughout the summer, they may stumble out of the gate when they are confronted with the expectations of their new grade.

The question of where video games belong in the toy hierarchy is one I am asked every five years or so.

Teachers from elementary school all the way up to the collegiate level are still on the fence about the credibility of Wikipedia, and where to draw the line.

My daughter has an awful way of holding her pencil. Her writing is as difficult to read as it is for her to write. Homework assignments are agony.

Having met with many parents who have decided to home school their children, I see two distinct categories - homeschoolers and what I call 'schoolhomers.'

The current industrial era model of education will only continue to become more and more out of date as culture continues to evolve, and as a result the number of students who say they are stuck in a system with no relevance will continue to grow.

It can be frustrating to watch our educational leaders continue to try and treat the symptoms instead of curing the disease that is the continued use of the Industrial Era model of education.

The article you enclosed, Do schools share too much with parents? is a good example of how much has changed as Internet communication has improved and social networking sites have boomed in popularity.

As parents, we can help our children learn responsibility and decision-making by letting them create their own summer schedule, with our guidance.

Reading is a mechanical skill, like riding a bike. You learn to maneuver the bike to get to a given destination. So if reading is the bike, what is the destination? It's called thinking!

I have always been hesitant to endorse school vouchers as a viable solution for the educational difficulties in this country.

Parents need to stop and assess whether the grades are the result of the child being schooled well or educated well. There is a big difference.

I will follow up for you with a starting point on how parents can lay a solid foundation for their children that will address some intangibles that, when missing, can weigh heavily on children's performance and/or conduct in the classroom.

When it comes to parent/teacher conferences, many parents hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

The job of parenting is full of paradoxes: Joy and pain, fear and comfort, rewards and frustrations.

Every semester we start school and every semester our son promises that things will be different. He says he is really going to put forth the effort and make good grades. Unfortunately, year after year we believe him.

Dr Fournier looks to find the balance between extremes. Both the 'Tiger Mother' and the 'Hiroshima Mom' have created convenient excuses for themselves to inflate their own egotistical needs.

What do you think about the increasing digitization of learning in the classrooms of today?

For parents, a school year can be fraught with work and tears, due to a mentality of desire in this country for bigger, better, sooner and more when it comes to education.

If your children are to become change agents in tomorrow's globalized world, then it would serve them well to pay attention to countries like China and languages like Mandarin today.