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The following is from a New York Times article entitled Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits:

Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

What does the phrase in italics mean here?

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    To check out means to investigate, to go see and discover. (By the way, it was hard to tell how much of your question was a quote from another article, and how much was part of your own question. I've fixed that with an edit.) – J.R.♦ Nov 30 '17 at 21:46
  • What does the phrase "And check out the classroom." mean in this case? pls – Jane Miller Nov 30 '17 at 22:30
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    It literally means "You should come and carefully investigate the class being taught in this classroom and also investigate how it is being taught." This is more wordy, but I think it captures the whole idea behind the phrase. Most of this comes from the context in the first few sentences. – Michael Dorgan Nov 30 '17 at 22:43
  • So, to attend classes and to learn them carefully in the classroom? – Jane Miller Nov 30 '17 at 22:47
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In this context, the phrase "Check out the classroom" means "Take some time to learn about the educational environment [where your child will be educated]."

The next three sentences reinforce this idea:

  • Does your child's learning style match the teacher's teaching style?
  • Does your child's learning style mesh well with the school's philosophy?
  • Is your child a good fit for this particular school?

The phrase could just as well mean, "Go look at the room where your child will be seated at his desk during school." But the surrounding context makes it clear that "classroom" is being used in a more broad and symbolic sense in this instance.

Note that the first paragraph is all about giving your child a productive place in the home for homework. The second paragraph is focusing on learning all you can about the school and seeing how well it aligns with your child's strengths, weaknesses, and learning style.

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check out is very informal, slangy. It means to look at something, or to look into something, as in to investigate it, research it.

Here, in the imperative, as in your sentence:

Check out the funny hat that dude is wearing. It's got two cans of beer stuck in it.

I need to check out whether the video card I ordered online supports three monitors.

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  • I don't ask about "check out", I ask about the whole phrase "And check out the classroom" pls – Jane Miller Nov 30 '17 at 22:34
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    What don't you understand about "the classroom"? Any dictionary could tell you what a classroom is. – Tᴚoɯɐuo Nov 30 '17 at 22:34
  • I don't understand the whole phrase, I don't ask about what classroom means, I want to understand it entirely, could you pls write the phrase in other words, if you understand what the phrase means in this context. Thanks a lot – Jane Miller Nov 30 '17 at 22:43
  • Paraphrasing: "Take a close look at the classroom". That is, consider how things are going in the classroom. The reader is urged to look at classroom teaching dynamics, not at the room itself. It is interesting to me that this caused difficulty for you. Don't you have similar statements in your language? – Tᴚoɯɐuo Nov 30 '17 at 23:03
  • Imagine a hospital where people are not surviving surgical operations in numbers greatly above the average. Look at the operating room! is likely to mean "Look at what is happening in the operating room" (doctor and nurse actions) rather than "Examine the walls, the floor, the lighting, of the room." – Tᴚoɯɐuo Nov 30 '17 at 23:08

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