FOR PARENTS ONLY:Education is the Family's Business

Let us all go back to school for the 2010-11 school year. I hope that the former statement is bold enough to cause you to either get inspired to inquire "What is she talking about?", or to inspect your current level of activity in your child (ren)'s academic pursuits. We have somehow nestled our selves in a position of blaming the immovable slow to update academic system, that one parent cannot change by himself. We have put our hopes in teacher, administrator and the idea of the institutions of brick and mortar that we have misplaced our truest responsibilities of being our child's primary teacher, learning/life coach and advocate.

Where and when did we lose sight of this great investment we, parents have been given? When did the commandments and responsibilities of Parenthood, and a vision for preparing of children for lifetime been traded for the pursuits of us having more of any and everything? Now, one may think that this is too large a generalization. However, number do not lie. The academic reports for parental participation in one's child academic pursuits are negatively staggering. A longitudinal study titled ,Longitudinal Assessment of Teacher Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Children's Education and School Performance 
conducted by Charles V. Izzo, Roger P. Weissberg, Wesley J. Kasprow and Michael Fendrich supports my concerns  in this matter. The study examines the ways in which parental involvement in children's education changes over time and how it relates to children's social and academic functioning in school. Teachers provided information on parent involvement and school performance for 1,205 urban, kindergarten through third-grade children for 3 consecutive years. They rated the following four dimensions of parent involvement: frequency of parent-teacher contact, quality of the parent-teacher interactions, participation in educational activities at home, and participation in school activities. As predicted, the frequency of parent-teacher contacts, quality of parent-teacher interactions, and parent participation at school declined from Years 1 to 3. Every parent involvement variable correlated moderately with school performance and parent involvement in Years 1 and 2, and accounted for a small, but significant amount of variance in Year 3 performance after controlling for initial performance level. Participation in educational activities at home predicted the widest range of performance variables. Results suggest that enhancing parental involvement in children's schooling relates to improvements in school functioning.

Let's Help our children do better in life. Let's aid in the way their daily interaction in and out of the classroom unfolds. Let us take back the reign of school administrators, school reform agents and politicians as the primary advocates in our children's academic process. Let us regain our interaction, participation and ultimately utilize the aforementioned groups as a secondary line of defense in the academic and scholastic pursuits of our families.

DO NOW activities we can, and should be doing.  Most school districts are officially back in session, and the truth is, even with twelve (12) weeks of summer, teachers and administrators are as stomped with the enormous responsibilities they have to bear in addition to teaching the standards required for their grade level, as they were in June when all our children were dismissed for vacation. So, lose the absolute notation that it's a new start! The reality is that your child's school may have shifted around teachers, made schedule changes, might have even hired new administrator and implemented some new or updated strategic plan on meeting academic goals;however, this does not change or silence the relentless call for parents become involved in the academic process. Family, we are behind in our responsiveness to this urgent call. Too many children don't get the benefit of our advocacy until they are failing or have failed in school. Then we shuffle around madly seeking tutors and academic support. We are not attending school meetings, or showing up teacher-parent conferences in droves as we would a sale on black Friday. We pay for mindlessly and carelessly for cable, the latest cars, games, clothing and other items with a diminishing return; yet squirm, and comp template with excruciating pain the allotment of funds for tutoring or academic support for our children. Where is our shame? We have a legacy, a business investment in our children that we are watching take a dive on the stock market of life.

Listen, let's do ourselves and the teachers a favor. GET INVOLVED! ENGAGE your children. ABOUT what?= What they are learning ! Give them detailed tasks to do, & watch if it is completed. Our children need to be held  accountable to learning lessons for a lifetime rather than for the momentary exams/tests.75% and more of our children cannot/DO NOT follow directions accurately for successful outcomes. Wonder why they are testing poorly or cannot perform cognitive processing=they have no practice. Do simple tasks at home and play to help build those functions. Engage you kids in dialog about matters of life and you'll be amazed in many ways. A few result includes, (1)they don't have the acumen to dialog at age appropriate levels, (2)they seem to not be active listeners therefore not able to complete tasks close to the letter of direction (3) They exceed age appropriate skills in communication and comprehension (4) The would benefit from academic support (5) They need encouragement to build confidence of overall performance efficacy.
Have fun with your children. Get to know them, and those who influence them the most, friends, teachers, administrator. DO NOT BE THE LAST to know what's up with your children via a note in the mail!

Articles that have informed my knowledge base:http://books.google.com/books?id=LeZXVVuhpAUC&lpg=PA73&ots=sTl74_0ywF&dq=statistic%20on%20parent%20participation%20in%20schools&lr&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q=statistic%20on%20parent%20participation%20in%20schools&f=false