Parental Involvement with Education

[Appa23]

Bored Teachers and/or educational experts can correct me if I am wrong, but I recall seeing stories and reports detailing how one of the leading factors, if not the leading factor, in improving the educational achievement of a child is parental involvement/interest in that education.

After last night, I was surprised to see that it seems to be an issue in arguably one of the best, most affluent school districts in my state.

As you may recall, my wife was working on a committee for our school's "Show What You Know" learning fair, acting as a secondary co-chair. Despite extending the deadline to sign up, there still was a disapppointing number of entries. Maybe 25% of the students participated, and that is including the fact that an entire Kindergarten class had one project, an entire 1st Grade class had a project, and 5th graders were being graded and had to particpate. Otherwise, it would have been maybe 5-10% participation.

We were disappointed because it is such a well-attended, highly-participated activity at our son's former school. [Shockingly, very few of the kids and parents from the aforementioned K and 1st classes even attended to see their projects and the other projects.] I always liked the event becuase there are so many kids who have interests and "expertise" in areas outside of normal academic subjects, and this is an opportunity for them to shine.

Not surprisingly, there were several projects where it appeared that a paent did most, if not all, of the project, and the student was fairly clueless on what "his" project was. They did not seem to learn as much as they could have about "how airplanes fly", for example.[hey, what second grader doesn't know all about Bernoulli and aerodynamics? }

The Boy was a bit miffed because some people thought that his project was a little "gross". (You may recall that his project centered around the plastic surgeries performed on his baby sister, including before/after photos and his Q & A session with the doctor.)

On the positive(?) side, my wife now is convinced that she needs to be in chartge of the event next year, and see if it can reach its potential as a fun, educational event.

[mrkelley23]

You're definitely not wrong about the parental involvement thing, but I wouldn't rush to blame all of this on apathetic parents.

From your descritpion, it sounds like this thing has been run more as an obligation than a fun event for many years. Maybe your lovely bride can breathe new life into it. We did a thing called an "Invention Convention" here for years. Because not everyone bought into it, it became a chore, rahter than a fun thing, after about three years. But by then it was part of the Educational Inertia System (EIS), so our dept. chair was scared to get rid of it, and risk angering TPTB.

I see it kind of like the mandatory Pledge of Allegiance and Moment of Silence we have now: forced patriotism is not patriotism, and forced fun is no fun.

[MarleysGh0st]

The Boy was a bit miffed because some people thought that his project was a little "gross". (You may recall that his project centered around the plastic surgeries performed on his baby sister, including before/after photos and his Q & A session with the doctor.)

Did you warn him that might happen? Not everyone would want a seat in an operating room theater.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

PTA has an annual Reflections competition which involves writing an essay or taking a picture or composing music.

The number of participants at the elementary school level dwindled to one or two. The new chair of the committee asked for a budget and started recognizing participants with certificates and gift cards at an awards assembly. The next year, many more people participated.

Speaking as somebody who has a crazy week this week, I know that it's probably not because of apathy that children/parents are participating, they are probably just tired and had to draw the line somewhere.

Tonight for instance, I have to take Maddie to Huntington Beach, then I have to pick up balloons for a drama fundraiser and deliver them to a performance to be sold. There is also a fundraiser for Emma's school at California Pizza Kitchen. If the traffic is just right, then I can leave quiz bowl, run over to the dinner fundaiser, then pick up the balloons and deliver them to the play. I would love to not participate in the food fundraiser, but since most of the stuff I am doing tonight is for Maddie, I want Emma to know that I support her school as well and she has been looking forward to it.

[traininvain]

They did not seem to learn as much as they could have about "how airplanes fly", for example.[hey, what second grader doesn't know all about Bernoulli and aerodynamics? }

Hmm, I didn't do this until my daughter was in Third Grade, I suppose we were a little behind. I was very proud of "our" working wing and fan that made it rise. My wife made me throw it out a couple of years later, fortunately I was able to strip it down and get the usable parts off it. A year later she did the project with her friend all by themselves, Which Iced Tea Tastes the Best?, sometimes parental help is good, very good.