(14) Parental Involvement in Student Education Proves to be TOUGH WORK

In your opinion, are parents required to be involved in their child's learning?  This EducationWeek article focuses on this very issue and tries to elicit where exactly parents should be involved in their child's education based upon the funding given to schools by the government sponsored programs and laws.

Parental involvement in our students' education will always be relevant and necessary for successful learning to be reinforced. After reading this article, I do feel that it is essential that what we teach our students in a classroom is somehow reflected upon in some way, big or small, at home with interactions occurring between parents and students.  Through this interaction, parents are then able to gauge in how the students see the learning they are acquiring.  They can possibly help reiterate something that is missed, and help to understand the communal aspect of student learning and assistance. Though it is our role to educate, inspire, and elicit creativity in our students, it is a shared occupation that requires in some way that parents involve themselves in the students' understanding of concepts covered.  This is not to say that parents should be helicopter parents, hovering over their children, making sure that they understand the concepts that we as educators are teaching them.  It is more essential that parents understand their roles in facilitating responses to problems and helping to bridge the gap from what is learned in school to being a guide in the outside world.  

I think it is important that parents are involved.  I say involved because students need ACTIVE support in all areas for the learning they are internalizing.  This is not solely a teacher's responsibility.  If students learn something in school that is relatively understood as common knowledge, but there is no reinforcement outside of school, in any capacity, the chances of the student retaining that knowledge is slim and potentially non-existent.  This is how we as educators need to help facilitate that parents understand their roles in their child's education.  They will not be teaching them per se, that is OUR job.  They are however important roles models in reiterating and maintaining a productive environment for students to learn outside school.

The big question that the article focuses on is where and how exactly do we promote this style of learning.  It is not essential that parents see their involvement in their childs' education being completed by randomly supporting school functions and attending/ participating in "random acts of family involvement".  Though there are various methods proposed, one method approaches that parents not only involve themselves in school functions for their children, but approach school work and other arrayed activities at the home level for their kids.  This seems like the most beneficial method for the students.  It provides them with the well-rounded support system that reflects on their education.  

The law that requires schools to mandate parent involvement also requires compacts to be made specifying exact ways that the parents will be supplementing and actively participating in their child's education. They need to be participants in their child's educational upbringing.  Public education districts in Boston, MA have even elected and created "Parent University" since roughly 2009.  This program provides inspirational activity for parents to be engaged in their child's education.  It also provides necessary childcare for parents while they attend these seminars and "classes" on ways that they can improve their presence and participation in their child's education.  The program has significantly grown over the past three years in attendance and is widely supported by funding provided by the government for family-involvement aspects of education.

The even bigger aspect to this issue is how to draw in parents to be involved if they are not already.  Problems arise with parents who have strict opinions on how curriculum should be shaped and how funding should also be spent.  Though we both know as teachers and parents that their involvement is crucial in student life, it becomes problematic when we cannot focus on a group understanding of why this is outreach is so important. Some districts have even hired professionals to be outreach counselors that mainly focus on bringing in and managing parental involvement in their child’s education.  This is not a problem for just one area of educational concentration.  This affects all teachers, of all subjects, no matter how effective their teaching may be in a classroom.  It is a universal issue that we must design a solution to, in order for students to better gain an understanding of how important the future of education is.

What do you think?  Is it asking too much for parents to be involved in certain ways in their child’s education?  If they are willing to be active participants, how else can we bring them into the fold collectively without disregarding their thoughts and opinions? Read the article and sound off with your thoughts and comments!