Parents are the Key!!!!

In response to: Strong Parenting Is Key to America’s Future By Joseph W. Gauld Published Online: November 29, 2010

I love and wholeheartedly agree with this article. Parents are definitely the key to education. Why do many parents believe it is the job of the teacher to teach their child everything there is to know about life? There is no way educators can cram all the knowledge our students need to know in, especially with the decrease in budgets and school days. Students must come to us with a foundation. You wouldn’t build a house in the mud without a foundation and expect it to last 60 years. Why do we expect the same of our children?

When I taught pre-kindergarten four years ago, I had students that could not tell you their whole name, let alone how to spell it. However I had several students that you could tell their parents put in work with them and excelled over the rest. I also had one (a teacher’s kid) who could read on a first grade level at the age of 4. I can truly say that that young man shocked me because I had never seen a four year old read like that, but why can’t all of our parents be held to that expectation? Why shouldn’t students come to school at least knowing how to spell their name and some site words?

Though this article was a great one, I notice one flaw, a solution. How can we get parents involved with their child’s education from birth? How can we make all parents realize it starts at home? I know my school does a lot to get parent involved and we try to educate them on way to be productive in their child’s life, but our parent simply don’t show up, no matter what incentive we give (free food, extra credit for their child, free tutoring and other programs).

So here’s my solution for American education, education cannot be free. NO public schools should cost nearly as much as private schools but I feel if parents had to pay even a small fee, they would be more involved in education. Plus we would have to continue to deal with budget cuts. I know a lot of people don’t agree with me on this one but think about your last trip to McDonalds. You order a double cheeseburger with no onions and extra pickles. Even though that double cheeseburger only cost $1.00 you want it the way you ordered it. If it was free you would just pick the onions off and enjoy it without the extra pickles, but because you paid for it, you want it your way. Our education system is the same. Parents who pay for their child’s education pay attention to it more but they want to make sure they are getting their monies worth. Because it is free they take it the way they get it; leaving our children to suffer.

If my strategy for increasing parent involvement was taken I think we could and would express the important of education to many parents and make them realize they are the key. If parents would start to understand how important they are to their child's success, we would succeed as a nation.However, without their help, guidance and assistant our education system is destined to fell.