Drowning in school papers?

Dr. Linda Silbert

Dear Dr. Linda,

PAPERS, PAPERS, and more PAPERS!!!

My sixth-grade son’s backpack is a mess of papers! He has five binders jammed into his backpack and each one is overloaded with papers. Some of the papers are in the rings in the binders and others are sticking out of his binders in every direction. Then there are loose papers just stuffed into his backpack. We’ve told him to clean it out over and over again because he can’t find anything and keeps losing points because he loses stuff. But, he keeps saying, “I don’t know what to do.” If we clean it, we don’t know what’s important and what isn’t. Somehow, we all end up yelling, which isn’t solving the problem. Do other parents’ kids have the same problem or is it just our kid or is it his teachers that are creating this situation?

-Joe

Dear Joe,

You aren’t alone. Other parents are also swimming in piles and piles of papers. Starting in elementary school, kids seem to be swarmed with papers. The problem with so much paper is that most kids, especially elementary and middle school kids, have no idea how to organize them. Many kids don’t know what to do with a few sheets of paper, no less piles of paper. (And I don’t personally think most executives would be able to handle the quantity of papers students deal with every day.)

Organized teachers can help their students set up systems to help keep the papers in the right binders. But teachers aren’t dealing with one or two children. They are dealing with as many as 100 kids or more if they’re teaching in middle school or high school. And even if they give specific directions to the kids as how to organize their papers, the kids who are developmentally capable and have the “neat gene” will do just fine. But, the kids who haven’t matured yet or don’t have the “neat gene” will be drowning.

How do most parents deal with this problem? Some lecture like you’re doing. As you said, that gets you nowhere because if your son were capable of organizing all that paper, he wouldn’t be in this predicament. Our brains continue to mature into adulthood and many kids your son’s age aren’t capable of figuring things like how to organize or set goals or evaluate options. And trying to make them do it when they’re not prepared yet is like giving babies steak before they have teeth. They cry and choke because they’re not ready.

So, what can you do? You or your son’s teacher will have to help him. What better time to begin than now in the spring. Think of it as spring cleaning!

Here are suggestions for a routine:

• Buy a sturdy 3-hole punch and those old-fashioned reinforcements that go around the holes in paper. These are absolute necessities…not optional.

• Find a bright room to work with your child and choose a large table or counter or spread out on the floor. Your decision.

• Find a time that is convenient for both of you.

• Stay calm and don’t lecture. Remember, most kids are not capable of doing this chore alone at first. However, once you start the routine and talk about the strategy, they’ll be able to continue it if they’re so inclined. (Some people love things organized and others thrive in disorganization).

• Put a big paper recycling bin in the middle of the room.

• Put five medium-sized open binders on the table or floor, preferably of different colors. Label each binder by subject. For example: English, Social Studies, Science, Math, Language.

• Open your son’s backpack and start at the very top with the first piece of paper in or out of a binder. Put each piece of paper you pick up either in the paper recycling trash bin or into one of the binders in date order. Tests, important class notes and homework assignments worth keeping are all placed in the appropriate subject binder while old PTA cupcake sale flyers go to recycling. Since everything in the binders will be organized by date, each topic with the tests for that topic will be together.

• If you can’t find the date on some of the papers, put them in a pile, by subject. When you’re done, go through the undated papers and put them with other papers on that topic.

• Replace the broken binders, which you’ll need next year, and put all current tests, homework assignments and notes in the binders he’ll still be using in school.

• Place the five binders filled with important papers from the year on a shelf. When your son comes home with new papers, go through the routine again—have him punch holes in the paper, reinforce them, and put them into the correct binder. When it’s time to study for finals, all the information will be right there.

You’ll both feel much better once you’re done, even if you have to schedule to do it again in a month.

Have fun!

-Dr. Linda

Send your questions to Linda@stronglearning.com.