Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Parent involvement
I believe that the involvement of one or both parents is very important to a students success in school. Some students do need more parental involvement than others, like when I was in school all I needed was knowing my parents supported me but on the other hand my younger sister needed my parents help with homework and my parents needed to work with her teachers often. My sisters and I were lucky enough to come from a middle class family where my mother was a stay at home mom and could be more involved with our education if we needed it. Other children are not so lucky.
Auerbach talks about this issue in her article. She discusses how many parents do not have the opportunity to have a large role in their child's education. Her article focuses on parents of Latino and African descent and I really identified with article because I grew up in the town next to Lawrence where there is a large population of latinos and low SES families. I also know several pArents from lawrence that wish that they could be more involved in their children's schools. Unfortunately many of these parents can't do all they want within the school because that have to work. The cannot afford the time off to chaperone a field trip and are usually still working when their children get home from school and therefore are not there to help with homework. Some of the parents do not speak English or never finished high school themselves so they either lack the language or knowledge to help with homework or converse with a teacher. For some of the parents that didn't finish school they feel uncomfortable in a school setting.
These parents in turn tend to be judged by teachers and school faculty. Many teachers see them as uninterested in their child's education and think they do not care about the student but in most cases it is the complete opposite. Many of these parents are working so hard to safe up to send their kids to college that they can't be involved within the school but they are their to give emotional support. The teachers that think this way often give up on the students and this is just wrong. Teachers should be reaching out to these students. Offer homework help. Reach out to the parents. If their is a language barrier offer handouts in different languages or see if the school can provide an interpreter. The teacher needs to make strides too, not just the parent.
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Ashley, I agree with your comments. I am a stay-at-home mom and I know that my kids have benefited compared to those whose parents aren't at home as often. There has been a time for each of my kids in which they were overwhelmed and over their heads with things that needed to get done. I was able to sit down with them, prioritize, explain things they didn't understand, help them to know which things they could just 'get done' and which needed more thinking and time, and even rearrange their schedules to make things work. If I hadn't been there to help they would have gotten much more frustrated and less efficient and would have let things slide and felt like they couldn't do it. I can see how this could feed on itself and lead to kids tuning out. Once you get behind it's hard to catch up, especially if you aren't feeling confident. I can completely understand how competent kids can fall by the wayside if the teachers don't notice and help.
ReplyDeleteAshley I agree completely. My mother also was a stay at home mom, and I often think about how lucky I was in school because of this. If I forgot my lunch or a project at home (which was often) she would drop it off for me. Most students did not have this. They would go hungry, or lose points for turning in the project late. This actually is not really fair at all because their parents are simply unable to drop everything and visit the school because they are at work. I think this is more difficult for minority or immigrant students because there is such a culture clash and stereotypes to overcome. A teacher may not believe a Mexican student forgot their report on their desk, whereas a white student may be believed. I also agree with your statement that teachers need to make strides too. Sure, it would be easier to blame it on the parents, but teachers also have a responsibility to their students to make sure they are doing what they can with their best efforts to help every student, especially those who are struggling.
ReplyDeleteTeachers are often challenged by the fact that reaching out to parents and community members take time; but when teachers do this, the benefits are indescribable. My students in my Lawrence class saw the difference a phone call makes. It is sometimes the baby steps or little gestures that help: call home when there is something positive to report or just to say hello. Visit places where you know the parents frequent (i.e., the Market place, faith-based institutions or other community organizations). By building a relationship with the family and community, teachers are expanding their own support system to help them do their jobs.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I completely agree with your thoughts. Parent involvement is so necessary to help a student achieve success in school. As a teacher, I see some parents all the time and some I almost never see. It is unfortunate that many teachers do judge parents due to not being able to leave work. Unfortunately, I have heard teachers in the lounge complain and judge parents. It is hard to believe that people who are teaching and guiding students each day can be so judgmental, but it happens and we need to find ways to correct this.
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