Parent Participation & Prompt #5

The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students’ learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.

A student should never leave their brain within the school grounds. Education should not end when the bell rings. What good does it do when a student does not think outside the classroom and how much good does it do when they don’t do their homework? I think a student that lives that lifestyle can be a teacher’s worst nightmare. It is extremely important for a student’s parents to be involved in their child’s education.

I actually had a conversation with the teacher about this exact issue. Every week when I came into the classroom, usually to help with math, I found that I was back to square one with the students. The week before I would discuss long division with them and when we revisit the same problems they instantly forget the first step. One student knew that 5 could not go into 3 when dividing 38 by 5 but wanted to put a 0 above the 3 instead of leaving it blank. I thought I could briefly go over those concepts and move onto the next lesson but I soon found myself spending the whole hour repeating the same lesson. When I asked the teacher why this was happening she said they are not doing their homework. Probably because their parents aren’t enforcing it, she added.

I would call this the under protective parent. This is a parent who does not participate in her child’s development. Everyone knows that practice makes perfect, especially in math. If I imagine myself as a teacher, I see the opposite occurring as well. I would call this the over protective parent. This being the parent who thinks their child can do NO wrong. During parent-teacher conferences I’d think you’d discuss your student in detail and discuss how to make him/her the best he or she can be. If a parent is over protective then he or she will be close minded to any productive change for their child.

I am a strong believer that most children look up to their parents maybe even more than they look up to their teacher. They may need some encouragement from their parents. Someone they will listen to more than their teacher. I would hope that if I begin by revealing all of the student’s strengths, this type of parent would be softened and more open to encourage their daughter or son’s educational growth.

This topic, without a doubt, brings Lisa Delpit’s The Silence Dialogue in mind. She is a strong believer in parent’s participating in their child’s education. She brings about ideas such as asking your child what color is the balloon in front of them? Another example being that ideas get lost in grammar, parents and teachers should join together to teach them and fix it. Students are fully capable of learning these things. Don’t deny them and don’t ignore the opportunity to teach.

Delpit also goes into detail about the misunderstanding in dialogue. For example, when a student is sharpening a pencil at an inappropriate time and asked the student “Is it time to sharpen your pencil?” The student may answer yes, not knowing that the teacher is trying to tell him or her to sit down. Delpit brings up a great point and teachers should all keep this in mind when communicating to their students.