Why Parents Must Get Involved in the Child’s Education

Parents should be actively involved in the education of a child despite the fact that there are already several teachers, administrators and other school personnel to provide them the guidance they need through the school’s rules and regulations, the curriculum, and the learning.

Although it has been shown from studies that the children whose parents are involved in their education by helping them review lessons and study for exams exhibited higher scores in exams and performed better in the overall aspect, this is not how and why they should get involved. If being involved meant teaching and the reason for getting involved was for better grades, then all parents had to be well-educated and good at instruction. Furthermore, it such was the reasoning, then parents will fail to clearly express what the purpose of the education of a child is.

No, being involved could include but is not limited to teaching the child and reviewing him prior to exams. Parents must get involved in the education of a child, NOT his classroom. Also, the reason why parents must involve themselves is not for the child to develop a better academic performance, but to make sure that they are getting the proper learning and experience they would need once they are out in the real world. Remember that teaching your child the day’s lessons, attending parent-teacher meetings, or baking pineapple upside-down cake for their Christmas party are not the things that will determine your progress as an adult, and your success as an individual.

The following are some ways by which parents can get involved in their child’s education. Some of these ways need not even require parents to visit the child’s classroom.

- Regularly talk with the teacher of your child. Check on your child’s progress and ask if there are certain problems your child is experiencing in particular. The teacher can tell you what subjects are difficult for him, so you can teach your child at home or hire a tutor for him.
- At least discuss with your child his homework (if not help him with it).
- Obtain a copy of the school curriculum and get supplementary materials in advance for your child.
- Do not just depend on your child’s teachers; monitor his progress yourself!
- Set up a quiet study area for your child at home. This need not be an entire room. A table and a chair with a desk lamp at the corner of your child’s room would do. See to it that a specific time is set aside for doing homework.
- Always motivate your child! Let him feel how much you support him and that you want to help him get the best education of a child possible.

A Classroom Cannot Substitute The Real World

Like most parents, you are probably thinking that a decent school with high standards of teaching is enough to ensure the proper education for your child. This is not true. A good school may and most likely will provide your child sufficient “academic” knowledge, but education is not limited to subjects like history, language, math and the sciences alone. There is more to education than the ability to summarize the life of Julius Caesar, explain the symbolisms used by Shakespeare, calculate limits at infinity, and recite the names of all the constellations of the night sky. In fact, a background on these things is important but in the end, you and I both know that your child will not survive the real world if these were all he knows. Even if schools teach values education subjects, knowing what is “ideal” is not enough when he finally comes across what is “real”.

Learning achieved in school is not enough once your child’s out there in the real world. What one reads in books, no matter how much your child has memorized them, will not help him if he has not been there firsthand. Real education is achieved through experience. Life requires that a person learns and understands certain things—things that cannot be learned inside a classroom. One must experience something in order to understand it. Likewise, the education for your child if he is to become prepared for adulthood, must involve being exposed to what really happens once you are an adult.

The best real examples from whom he can learn are of course, his parents and immediate family, and the community. A child must observe, learn and understand how adults function in order to survive, how one should balance time and handle money responsibly, and how one should act and speak if somebody lost a loved one. He must also experience failure, so that he would know how to stand up if he fails again. He must know and experience how to apologize, express gratitude, forgive, solve problems, and make decisions. He must know how one should behave in parties, how spouses should give and take, how to raise a child well, and how to respect the opinions of other people. These are some examples of the things that make up the real education for your child.

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