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Back-to-school success tips

Free Press staff report | 9/4/2015, 3:49 a.m.
For thousands of public school students across the region, summer’s almost over. School officially starts Tuesday, Sept. 8.
A South Side middle school prepares to open under its new name on Forest Hill Avenue Photo by Sandra Sellars

Desean Holland gets a back-to-school haircut from barber Donnell Bates.

Photo by Sandra Sellars

Desean Holland gets a back-to-school haircut from barber Donnell Bates.

For thousands of public school students across the region, summer’s almost over.

School officially starts Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Dr. Matthew Lynch, 37, dean of the Syphax School of Education, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Union University, offered a few tips to help students have a successful school year:

• Make sure a child gets at least eight hours of sleep each night.

From left, Jandre, Nasir, Seneca and Jason Hackett are ready for the start of school with new book bags filled with school supplies.

Photo by James Haskins

From left, Jandre, Nasir, Seneca and Jason Hackett are ready for the start of school with new book bags filled with school supplies.

• Provide them a nutritious breakfast and lunch to allow their brain to develop at optimal capacity.

• Devote a set time each afternoon for the child to do homework with no distractions.

• A child’s caretakers are the “best teachers” and should form a partnership with schoolteachers to make sure the child has everything needed for classroom success.

• Provide the same learning environment at home as the school in order to help the child form consistent learning habits.

Dr. Lynch, a product of public schools in Hazelhurst, Miss., writes for several publications about education and can be found online at www.theedadvocate.org.