Parents Guidance and Monitoring - Essay Example

? Parent Involvement for the 21st Century Parent Involvement for the 21st Century The role of education is considered vital for everyone in today’s advancing world. There have been new and more technologies get developed day by day, and without having basic and proper education, no one can even think of utilizing from these technological gadgets. There are several K-12 schools spread all around the world to provide education to children so that they become a beneficial part of the society. The school’s policies and curriculum are designed in such a way so as to provide maximum quality education according to the respective social environment. Apart of providing good and properly designed education, all of the schools highly recommend the involvement of parents in their child’s education process. In the 21st century where education is a necessary and sufficient condition to be successful, parents who integrate education from homes and involves in their child’s education play positive parts in making their child or children successful. Particularly in early childhood period, children want to be guided by someone elder except their instructors and want their assistance in making different decisions. Hence parent’s involvement in child’s education process not only helps in their child’s academic life but is also considered of vital importance later in their lives and in the development of their personalities. Parent’s Guidance and Monitoring Parent’s involvement in their child’s academic life has always been appreciated. Since early childhood and early academics, children feel more confident and assured that they are being supported by their guardians in every activity. Parent’s support not only helps in improving child’s grades but also develop positive aspects in their personalities. It is also useful when the child gets diverted from studies and indulge in other activities which are not suitable for his/her academic career. The parents may forcefully revert the child towards education by providing proper guidance and handling him/her correctly. Educationists are of the view that parent’s guidance in academics and their frequent meetings with the instructor about the child’s betterment are extremely necessary and useful for their child’s own benefit. The child came to know that all of his/her activities are monitored and discussed; so he/she tries to be as good as possible. In this way the particular child remains unique from those who are not supported and provided with parent’s guidance. Issues regarding 21st century Although this century came along with as many beneficial technologies as one can think of, which have made the lives easier and comfortable; yet the machine maker himself has become a machine. Yes, indeed, the humans who invented all these hi-tech gadgets present themselves as a working machine too, with very less emotions and feelings. It is an unfortunate fact that the parents of 21st century do not pay any attention to their children as they can’t find time for their kids. No doubt that going to work and earning is also an essential element of life, but still, the children are suffering as the parents are not providing them with their guidance in academics and in other modes of life. Now a days there has been an issue of single parents with which many countries are suffering. It is very challenging and very hard for such parents to manage simultaneously their families and their jobs. They must have to earn in order to keep the standard of life and to keep any kind of financial burdens away from their children. On the other hand, such children who have single parents to live with are found to less confident and less involved in their academics since their parents cannot contribute a piece of time for them. Research indicates that even if very little time, say up to 15 minutes, are given to a child by his/her parents in which the constructive and positive conversation takes place about the activities and academics of the child, then it would be very helpful for the child. Such things boast a child’s moral and also the bond between parents and child gets stronger and better (Vincent and Tomlinson 1997). Personal Experience As an academic coordinator of the local school; I encountered with many children, rather many families, and get different information which is very helpful in conducting this research. I was the one there who was to meet with parents, inform them about their child and if required, give them a piece of advice about how to tackle their child or children in order to transform him/her or to make positive changes. I found with great regret that most of the cases were of lack of parent’s involvement and even worse were those in which parents’ handover their children to tutors and other substitutes. In today’s era of modern world, every person is computer literate and every person knows how to acquire some information from the internet. If a child questions about something, and if parents are unaware of that, they can derive the information from the internet. It is as simple as that. But unfortunately parents do not take interest in their child’s academic progress because of the factors like long working hours, post-work exhaustion, and part time or over time jobs etc. children of such parents are get neglected and feel themselves inferior of those who are fully guided by their parents. It is natural in children to compete with their mates in every aspect by describing about their toys, their houses, and about their parents too. I often heard sentences like, “does your mom provides you with your favorite item when you do something good? Well, my mom does!!” and “my father is a genius he knows everything about which I ask”. The structure and tone of such sentences indicate confidence in child’s personality whose parents encourage him/her to get good grades, by adapting certain different techniques and by providing him/her with all the answers of those questions which are asked by their child. Research and Strategic plans for the Parents Apart of getting involved in academics when the child is admitted to some pre-school, it is my observation that parents must start their child’s learning process through homes. Since the criteria for K-12 learning mainly emphasize upon objective learning, i.e., following a pre-defined set of course and syllabus, I highly recommend that parents must develop a habit of reading in their child before the pre-school age. I give my example in this regard. My parents were used to read one story book a day for me so as to develop learning through reading within me. By the time I was admitted to a pre-school, I was sharper than many of my class mates and my instructors were used to exemplify me in front of other children’s parents. Also by this method, I developed a passion of reading and thus I always remained more intelligent and capable of swift thinking because of reading books and articles of several kinds which enhanced my general knowledge. At that time there was no or very less use of internet, so emphasize was all upon books and other printed material. I consider today’s children and parents both enough lucky to have a technology like internet and browsing by which the information is only a click away. But also in today’s world, reading has its own importance and parents of 21st century can use both these tools in order to develop their child’s brain and to build strong educational foundation for them (Tesol 2012). The second step for every good parent’s to take is to choose a preschool for their child. Parents are like consumers and schools are like shops where the parents visit in order to get the best for their children (Hughes 1994). There have been many kinds of pre-schools which implement different policies regarding parent’s involvement and there are different techniques and course curriculum designed to be implemented. But since it is the modern era of 21st century, so parents should try to find both such pre-schools and K-12 school in which the information and communication technology ICT tools are integrated since the new generation is being surrounded and growing in the realm of digital media. Use of ICT tools has now been so widespread in schools that it has completely transformed the mode of learning and teaching. Now, education cannot be imagined without the use of multimedia; which contain graphical and visual slides so as to make the process of learning more interesting and effective. ICT tools have been considered very effective in language learning too; hence pre-schools adapting such techniques are highly beneficial for the children of such small age whose learning process has just been started. The more that K–12 teachers use technology, the more they recognize and value its positive effects on student learning and engagement (Education Trends 2010). Therefore parents must count on these regards before admitting their child so that the child get used to with the modern technology in early age and become self sufficient in achieving his/her educational goals. But the duty of the parents does not end here; they must always interact with the instructors so as to know about their child’s progress and to remove any problems or discrepancies which the child faces within the education system. Traditionally, parent involvement in their child’s academic activities was limited to attend parent teacher meetings, providing signature on daily diaries and quizzes, attend the annual prize distribution ceremony etc. The 21st century requires more than what is described. Today’s parents can play a bigger role by keeping in touch with their child’s instructor via email, so as to have a complete knowledge of their child’s day to day progress. Furthermore, schools of today constantly arrange social activities in which parents can participate and can cast a better impression upon their children that they care for them. All over the world now, organizations have been made by some parent groups which rise the collective voice for the parents and which consists of advisory councils to locate and to provide solutions and suggestions for the discrepancies of the educational system (Alizo 2010). The concept of “parent power” has been getting stronger day by day. Now a days there are certain educational organizations which held international conferences which fully concentrate on the issue of partnership between schools and parents. Some of such organizations are Parents in Education Research Network, European Research Network about Parents in Education etc (Jones 1995). It is very common amongst the parents that they may help their children in reading but when it comes to do mathematics, they always try to get rid off with it. This may be because of the poor educational circumstances and background of the family. The family background has an enormous effect in this regard. To develop awareness amongst the parents upon this issue, many projects have been developed like national numeracy project in 1997, which educated parents about this deficiency and told them that the only way to cover this deficiency is to educate their children. These projects suggested activities which develop schools methods at homes (Merttens and Vass 1990). The only problem with the parent’s involvement in their child’s academics is that no doubt they can participate actively in their child’s education process and come along with the culture of school; but they actually do not recognize what they are contributing in terms of knowledge in the development of their child’s learning abilities. For this purposes, the entire situation is being reversed, i.e., instead of applying school’s methodologies at homes, school’s environment have been made in such a way so as to recognize the richness of home environment. In this way, the ideas which come from homes and which are taught at schools combine in an environment which is friendly with the children so that they develop a good sense of learning and the goals of education can be achieved more appropriately and efficiently (Bouchard 1996, Civil 1996, Macbeath 1996). Conclusion Hence to conclude; we are able to deduce that in this 21st century, there are several new ways for making useful relationships between the parents and their child’s school. These new technological gadgets help parents to support their children in all educational processes. There can be electronic communication between the teachers and the parents by which both can remain aware about the home and school activities of the child. By adapting these new techniques and with the help and suggestions of the parents, schools can develop new strategies which would help in a better understanding of all social tools which are necessary for a child’s better future and education. It has been proved by researches conducted by different educationists and related person that since well informed parents in today’s modern and advancing world have netter knowledge of socially engaging tools that is why they can prepare a better educated setup in their homes by which the child in his/her early age becomes able to learn effectively and later on to get excel in this information age. Parents must starting implementing better educational strategies since very early age of child’s mental growth as it is the right time to introduce new things. Children have the ability to learn everything faster by the age of one year and after that. Also for those parents who work longer and cannot find much time to have some chat with their child and ask him or her about the obstacles in the way of education, they must at least devote less than half an hour for some constructive conversation with their child in order to have an understanding of support and confidence for their child. For such busy or signal parents, summer vacations is the ideal time to implement any kind of educational strategies and to get involved in child’s level academic progress since in this period, children have some free time apart of doing school’s homework and projects and thus are free to have a sitting with their parents. Also during regular school schedule, parents must motivate themselves to keep an eye on their child’s educational activities. They can make a daily schedule according to their work timings and can help in their child’s homework, or can guide them in defining some scientific procedure or in some arithmetic problems. In this 21st century, every information is just a click away and it becomes very handy for the parents to get knowledge about any such thing which they themselves do not know about. In today’s world, parents have become empowered to investigate about the environment, the curriculum and syllabus, the instructors and the mode of instructing of the schools in which they wish to admit their child. They can become researchers in their own communities and can access to any information about the resources which help to support their children. They can come in a leadership role by developing policies and incorporate different data inputs from different families so that schools can have a vast coverage and exposure and these may able to develop certain successful strategies. They must be able to negotiate with the school’s management so as to develop and implement those plans which are in the maximum benefit of their children. In this way, they can make their children successful, confident and highly motivated to face the obstacles of practical life (Johnson 2012). Works cited Alizo, M. Parent Involvement in the 21st Century. September 21, 2010 Retrieved on 26/5/2012 from: Bouchard, J-M. (1996) Research partnership between researchers and practitioners, Paper presented at Education is Partnership Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 21-24 1996. Civil, M. (1996) 'Connecting Home and school: Funds of Knowledge for Mathematics Teaching'. In PME 19, PME 20, published by the Working Group: Cultural Aspects in the Learning of Mathematics, 20th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, July 8-12, 1996, University of Valencia, Spain. Education Trends: Views You Can Use. Vol. IX No. 12, July 2010. Retrieved on 26/5/2012 from: Hughes, M., Wikeley, F. & Nash, T. ( 1994) Parents and Their Children’s Schools. Blackwell. Johnson, M . Urban Parents of Color Discuss Family Engagement. Retrieved on 26/5/2012 from: Jones, L. & Farah, R. (1995) Linking School and Community Numeracy practices: A Family Numeracy Project based in London, Department of Educational Studies, Goldsmiths University. Macbeath, A. (1996) Parent Teacher partnership in the individual child’s learning: Research Implications. Paper presented at the Education is Partnership Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 21-24 1996. Merttens, R., & Vass, J. (1990). Sharing Maths Cultures: IMPACT. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Tesol, B. Role of parents in their child’s education. Retrieved on 26/5/2012 from: Vincent, C. & Tomlinson, S. (1997) Home-School Relationships: ‘the Swarming of Disciplinary Mechanisms’ in British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 23, No.3. Read More