It has been a long-standing debate on how to improve the increasingly failing American School system.

However, attention is rarely paid to the fact that children may be performing below par due to the conflict caused by faulty divorce and family law policies in the United States. Even if the education system is upgraded, improvement in performance will not be fully realized unless these family law policies are addressed.

The failing academics has gone hand in hand with the high rate of divorces which result in ugly custody court battles, a fact that negatively affects the children involved. This is worsened by poor policies in American Family Law that lead to wrongful custody decisions, thereby propagating parental alienation child abuse.

Studies have shown that by 1970, divorce cost a student about 12 months of lost progress as opposed to 3.6 months in 1920. It has also been proved that students who have experienced a divorce have a lower graduation rate than those who have not.

This damage can, however be lessened by a parent’s behavior regarding their child’s performance.

This is especially where corrective styles by parents are involved. Research conducted by psychologist Carol Dweck demonstrates that it is better to praise effort put in a certain endeavor than praising the child’s intelligence. This is because praising the child’s effort will make them more willing to try new things.

A study done on American and Chinese children who did badly in a test showed that their parents’ response to the results determined the results of a subsequent retest. The American parents were more concerned about shielding their children from the bad results than trying to help them do better.

The Chinese parents, on the other hand, encouraged their children to do better and this led to a significantly wider improvement than that of their American counterparts.

It is therefore important to monitor the styles that children are corrected and praised if improved performance is desired.
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