I am currently in my Junior Year at Edinboro University of PA, and I am working on an Independent Study, titled, “Parental Involvement in Education: Pros and Cons and Motivational Strategies.” I was hoping for some advice, input, or experiences anyone has had with parents, their involvement, or lack thereof, and any strategies that may have been used to include them, or in some cases, discourage them from too much involvement.
Thank you!
Lexi
Re: Parent Involvement
I am a parent who has found success with Brain Gym for my 7 1/2 yo. His school has been willing to be a partner in this therapy and the results are amazing. I believe that the teacher/parent relationship is essential. But it is like any other relationship - it takes work, compromise and open communication.
Re: Parent Involvement
I am a very involved parent and my children have benefited from my involvement.
I am blessed financially to not have to be working. I sympathize with those parents who have to work because they cannot give as much time to their child/student as they would like.
I observe their classrooms, speak with teachers, counselors etc.
It is a big puzzle when you have students with problems in school.
I have G/T gifted and talented ,ADD and learning disabled students.
There has to be constant invlovement and you need to be out there being thier advocate.
It is a fact that not all school personnel are properly equiped to teach our child or determine their needs.
To all those who are involved……….Good for you!!!
For those who are not………..you are doing your child a disservice.
Re: Parent Involvement
Keren wrote:
>
> I am a very involved parent and my children have benefited
> from my involvement.
> I am blessed financially to not have to be working. I
> sympathize with those parents who have to work because they
> cannot give as much time to their child/student as they would
> like.
> I observe their classrooms, speak with teachers, counselors
> etc.
> It is a big puzzle when you have students with problems in
> school.
> I have G/T gifted and talented ,ADD and learning disabled
> students.
> There has to be constant invlovement and you need to be out
> there being thier advocate.
> It is a fact that not all school personnel are properly
> equiped to teach our child or determine their needs.
> To all those who are involved……….Good for you!!!
> For those who are not………..you are doing your child a
> disservice.
Re: Parent Involvement
Hi, Good question. I live in Georgia so I am not sure if it is our Governors new school reform (thats what all the teachers blame it on) or if it is a nation wide problem, but it is real hard to be involved with your childs schools staff when you have teachers that behave more immaturely than your kid. It has been my experience that the teachers want to bug the parents to death about petty little things that they can not tolerate in order to make thier jobs easier and so that all of us parents will run out and have our little children put on the first drug to sedate them. Come on….my kid gets sent to the office if he passes gas in class. I have been in these class rooms before and it is a FACT that they pick out 1 -2 kids to write up on a daily basis. Since Ritalin became the drug of choice, kids are not allowed to be kids any more. And as far as learning disabilities goes, you can forget about trying to have a kid tested for dyslexia or anything else until you have successfully gotten him diagnosed as ADD/ADHD (which is easy to do these days) I think all parents want to be involved, I know I would be there every minute I could for my children and thier teachers, but we have got to start paying the good teachers what they are worth, and show them we are 150% behind them and for the other half of the teachers, send them back to school for 4 more years.
I’m not a teacher, but a parent. I sure hope you get some feedback from the spec ed and inclusion teachers out there. From my point of view, I’ve found my son, 13 yrs old - dislexic, ADD (inattentive type), auditory processing disorder, language-based LD - is the most successful when we have cooperation and unity with the subject teachers (he is in inclusive classes for all subjects), the spec ed teacher, the speech pathologist, and me, with a common goal that he learn as much as he possibly can. If you don’t have the parents on the same page with you, understanding their child’s struggles and abilities, and how best to address them in the classroom, and at home, you won’t get as far.
That’s my 2 cents. By the way, I live in Pittsburgh - we sure could use some spec ed teachers who value the imput of parents, rather than viewing them as interference and the enemy.