Chapter 3: Families and Communities

Most parents are actively interested in helping their children achieve the greatest potential. The best way parents can help is to form a partnership of open communication with their child's teacher.

Many times parents want to help but schedules are busy in this present era and most of the time all parents end up asking their children is, "is your homework done?" as their children crawl into bed. The honest attempt is there, but unfortunately it is not the most effective method of parental involvement. The next step for the parents would be to know what the student had for homework that night. Eventually the parents will be able to assist their children if they need it or let their children explain what they learned to them.

This is effective for the development of the students academically because it provides a similar environment and structure at home that they are used to learning in at school. Homework is assigned to reinforce what material was covered in class. If the student's time at home is structured to ensure that the homework is completed then the likelihood of the student learning is much greater. Students perform much better if they know the expectations their teacher and their parents have for them. Parental involvement offers the child support and encouragement from both the teacher and the parents. A structured environment that offers support and encouragement and in which the expectations are clearly known to the student gives the student the best opportunity for success in school.

The best way these goals can be achieved is through active and clear communication between the teacher and the parents. The teacher keeps the parents constantly informed on what material is being covered in class, what is the night's assignment, major projects, and up coming fieldtrips. The parents know that they can contact the teacher at any time to ask questions about their child's performance. Parent teacher conferences are set up by the school but some parents' work schedules are not flexible enough to attend. The parents know that the teacher can set up an appointment at a different time. The parents have opportunities to volunteer in the class room as well and to visit.

Communication often avoids the most common conflict between teachers and parents, which is homework. Some parents believe teachers assign too much homework and believe that school work should be done at school. Some parents believe that the teachers do not assign enough. Communication between the parents and teachers gives the teacher the opportunity to explain the necessity of the homework load and what the student has for homework each night.

A popular opinion of some people is focusing more on the student's responsibility instead of relying on their parents to know what the homework assignment is. If the student knows that their mom knows what the homework is the student will not bother to write the assignment down. Instead of increasing the student's skills it is actually enabling them to be lazy and rely on their parents. If their parents expect the student to know what the homework is and do it independently of their assistance, unless it is needed with the academic portion of it, it should not foster a lack of responsibility.

Parents are busy people who have to balance work and home life. Some people feel that the expectation that parents be involved in their child's school work will disadvantage the children whose parents do not have ample time to help them. Parents think that helping their child with school work takes a lot of time but in most cases it requires only a conversation to show the child that the parent is interested. Showing interest in what they are doing gives them more support than if the parents did not say anything about it.

Another argument against parental involvement is that some parents will push their children too hard to get good grades. This problem, unfortunately appears in other areas of a child's life such as athletics, music, dance or other after school activities. One thing a teacher can do if he or she recognizes this problem is to draw the parent's attention to the learning process rather than the end result.

By offering support, encouragement, and a structured environment through communication with the classroom teacher, parents can be actively involved in their child's learning and help them be successful in school.