Parental Involvement in Education

By Sean Scarpiello

As teachers are continuously being criticized by the public for doing a poor job teaching today’s students, it is important to realize that teachers can only teach so much during a school day. A teacher’s job is not to raise children, but to teach children. Many teachers these days are expected to become a second mother or father. However, teachers can only do so much in the seven or so hours a day that they have with students. Some of the problems in the education field are caused by the students’ parents. Parents need to get involved in their children’s education. Studies have shown students with parents that are actively involved in their children’s education tend to do better in school.

To start, many parents are very busy and both parents may work full time jobs. This is no excuse for being disengaged from their children’s education. Being involved does not mean that parents have to designate several hours a week towards volunteering at their children’s school. Being involved in the very least is making sure that their children are prepared for school each day. This means that their children have all their school supplies and that their children wake up well rested for the school day each morning. For most parents, these sorts of responsibilities are taken care of easily. However, teachers still have a few students each year that continuously come to class unprepared and do not have a regularly scheduled bedtime.

It is also important for parents to remain involved with their children’s homework. Students will put more emphasis on their homework if they see their parents taking it seriously. Getting involved in homework is a quick and easy way to improve children’s education. Schedule a time to do homework every day and be consistent when enforcing it. Then parents should check it. If it is not neat, have them redo it. If children have some wrong answers to homework questions, review the questions and answers with them. In the child’s mind, they will see that homework is important and it is right to do a thorough job when completing all schoolwork. When students have tests, parents can quiz them verbally for bit. This will make students study more and it will also allow parents to give study tips.

Parents can also stress the importance of school by assigning math and grammar work to do over the summer. It does not have to be a ridiculous amount of work, but just a few pages each day. This will stop students from forgetting all the things they learned the previous year. It gives the students an edge when they return in the fall and gives them confidence.

One of the best ways to be involved in a child’s education is talk to them. Ask them about their day, friends, teachers, and problems. Children may not want to talk about school at first, but after parents constantly ask about their day they will discuss it. This also lets children know that mom and dad are interested in school and their friends. This will also allow children to be more open and honest in the future when there are bigger problems to worry about.

It is important for parents to realize that not all learning takes place in a classroom and that it is important to be involved in the process of education. Children will put as much importance on education as their parents do. This does not require an unreasonable amount of time or money, yet the final result is a much higher quality of student with a strong focus on education and destined for success.

The Ultimate Responsibility of Parents

By Anthony Pellegrino

March 13, 2010

As you read this article, recall when we were sixteen or seventeen years old, young, healthy, and full of cockiness. Life was a bowl of cherries. We felt that we would live forever and do anything we wanted. Some of us dropped out of high school because we already knew everything. Why finish high school? The rest of us who stayed in high school were happy that it was about to end. We’d get a high paying job or go to college. We had it made.

We never heard the high school graduation speaker say that this is “not a graduation but a commencement.” A few of us headed for college; many of us headed for government jobs, and the rest of us just decided to drift—no skills, no jobs. But slowly the strain of the years began to wear on us. We became adults. We began to question whether we had made the right decision with our life. Are we happy and satisfied with what we have accomplished since those youthful days? Are we doing well or are we disappointed with our decisions and the path we have traveled? We know we messed up, but we feel it is too late to change

What if someone who loved us—a parent, a relative, a teacher—someone—had sat down with us and had helped us chart a course from adolescence to adulthood, would we be successful? What if we had had a strong, guiding hand that directed us to go to college or learn a skill, would we be better-off? Think back did anyone motivate us? Or were we left alone to drift and find our own lonely way?

I am referring to the futures of our children who are sixteen or seventeen. Are making the same decisions we had to at their ages? Do we assume our responsibility to them and motivate them properly?

As we continue to recollect our youth, once filled with exuberance and promises, is our path the same path we want our children to follow? Do we tell them that the life we are living is the best? Have our dreams have been fulfilled?

If we are truthful, we will tell them that we wish we had had someone who could have guided us? If only our parents, a teacher or someone who was interested in us would have sat down and told us with us that you need an education or learn a trade.

In a few months, many seniors will be graduating from high schools, and over fifty percent will drift along without a plan or goal. What will be their future and the future of our country since they will be replacing us? Are we going to let them make major decisions without any guidance at such a young age which will affect their entire life?

I recall my personal life when I graduated from high school. At eighteen I wanted to go into the entertainment industry in New York City. I was definitely not going to go to college.

After pleading with my father, he agreed to let me go. However he made deal with me. If I would attend a barber school in New York City and learn barbering while trying to break into show business, he would help me. He said if in my first love, I could still get a good paying job.

After two long years of trying to become an entertainer, I realized that I didn’t have the necessary talent but, I did earn a barber license. Upon returning home defeated, I decided to go to college. I finally realized I wasn’t so smart after all. As a result, I became a barber and attended college at the same time. How I bless my father for pushing me to learn a trade that carried me over hard times when I was young. I was fortunate to have wonderfully devoted parents. My father had worked hard all his life and had experienced what it meant to be person without a skill or trade. Coming from Sicily, he was very poor in English and could barely read and write. He insisted that I learn a profession to get a decent paying job.

Just to feed and clothe them is not enough. We must feed their minds and souls just as we feed their stomachs. We, parents, must insist that our children better themselves. We must instill a sense of drive and ambition to better themselves. It is my and your responsibility that we insist that they exceed us. Together with our children we must plan the major decisions that will lead them from youth to adulthood. We must lead them down roads carefully chosen so later in life; they don’t feel as so many of us feel today: “How I wish I had taken a different path through life.” Remember every son will replace his father and every daughter will replace her mother. Do we want them to be on a higher level than us or not?

In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, a young person comes to a fork in the road and must decide which way to go. Though both roads look at first sight equally good, he decides to take a lesser traveled road which later in his life makes all the difference:

What will our children say about the road they took years later? Will we have guided them or will they stumble along and wish that a parent, a teacher, a friend, a relative—someone—had guided them?

When they leave our nest will they be able to soar high like eagles enjoying the panoramic view? Helping them to make the major decision is our ultimate responsibility as a parent. Let’s do it!