Parent Interference v/s Parent Involvement Parental interference can create hardships for teachers, it’s the children who display the lasting eects
on interference of parents in modern school
Parent Involvement Versus Parent Interference in Schools A child’s first teacher is their parent, so it’s natural for the parent to have the desire to play a role in their child’s education. The benefits to a parent’s active involvement in a child’s education are multiple and include improved student performance and the development of learning skills, according to Kathleen Hoover Dempsey in the U.S.Department of Education’s “Handbook on Family and Community Engagement.” When overzealous parents cross the line and begin interfering in schools, the effects could last well into adulthood.
What Parental Involvement Looks Like Parental involvement in schools differs depending on a child’s age. In elementary school, for example, a teacher may seek volunteers to help with a holiday party or a school carnival. As a child gets into middle and high school, parents may have fewer roles in the classroom, but still assist with field trips and events that need chaperones. Parental involvement that spans through a child’s primary and secondary education includes parent teacher conferences, open houses, parent teacher associations and even helping a child with homework. Because of the numerous positive effects of parental engagement for children and the community, the National PTA, in the article “Overcoming Obstacles to Parent Involvement,” recommends that schools create a parent center to encourage family involvement.
The Benefits of Parental Involvement When parents are involved in a child’s school, a child’s social competence, behavior and academic performance improve. The publication “Parent Involvement in School Conceptualizing Multiple Dimensions and Their Relations with Family and Demographic Risk Factors” by Gwynne O. Kohl, Liliana J. Lengua, and Robert J. McMahon on the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine’s website, shares that a parent who sees themselves as their child’s teacher are more likely get involved in the child’s school by supporting education at home, volunteering, communicating progress, helping with homework and being an active member of the community. The authors of that publication found that the quality of a parent’s involvement directly relates to a child’s academic outcomes more than the amount of teacher parent contact. In addition to benefitting children, parental involvement helps improve teacher’s morale and the quality of the school.
Signs of Parental Interference Involvement turns into interference when a parent is quick to question a teacher’s decisions, expects special attention for their child or fills a teacher’s inbox or voicemail with complaints and concerns. In his article “Parental Control” on the National Education Association website, Tim Walker states that dealing with interfering parents can be more difficult for teachers than maintaining order in a classroom. An overzealous, interfering parent tends to seek immediate results from educators and is less likely to trust the public school system because of the mentality that they knows what’s best for their child.
The Effects of Parental Interference While parental interference can create hardships for teachers, it’s the children who display the lasting effects. In a 2007 University of Minnesota parent newsletter, the article “Walking the Fine Line: When Does Parent Involvement Become Parent Interference?” the school warns that parental interference can promote poor problem-solving skills in a child. By taking on the role as a fixer instead of listener, supporter and mentor, a parent may hinder a child’s ability to solve problem, practice autonomy and work independently as a child, teen and adult.
Parental Interference in the Classroom When parents cross the line from participating to hijacking classroom activities, parental interference happens. Unlike the positive participation that involvement includes, interference is a more negative form of joining into classroom activities. Interference may include talking over the teacher in front of the children, stopping the early childhood educator from teaching, focusing class activities on you or your beliefs instead of what the teacher is planning or showing up unannounced. For example, getting involved may mean that you go to your child's preschool to chaperone the class holiday party after the teacher asks for volunteers. On the other hand, interfering means that you show up at the class holiday party - even though all of the volunteer positions were already taken - and decide to do your own crafts and games with the kids.
Child's View Before interfering in your child's early education, consider what they think of your over-involvement. While your 4 year old may seem over-the-moon when you come in to read to her class on occasion, does she really want you in the room every day of the week? The educational environment of pre-school or day-care is your child's domain. Visiting periodically to help out is completely acceptable - if not desirable - when it comes to your child's school day. That said, constant interference may squash their school style or make them less likely to socialize with other people.
The Child's Education Parental interference doesn't just occur on the classroom level. It is also possible for parents to interfere on the individual child's level. This type of interference, also known as helicopter parenting, includes hovering over your child and assuming all of his responsibilities. While this is somewhat more understandable in the early years when children are more reliant on adults, your young child is developing a sense of independence that he needs to exercise on his own. Some ways that a parent may interfere with her child's education include doing work or craft projects for the child or disputing how the teacher interacts with him. For example, your child is tasked with creating a collage of magazine cut-outs at home. Instead of getting involved and adding a helping hand, you take over the project do the entire thing by yourself.
Parent Involvement Parent involvement in education includes participation-type activities in the classroom as well as help at home. In-school involvement during the early childhood years typically means that you go into your little one's class and help the teacher with an activity such as reading, a project such as arts and crafts or even a special event such as the preschool Valentine's Day party. At-home practices involve talking about what your child did at school, doing takehome work - this isn't the same as homework for an older child and focuses more on parent-child activities, or simply providing encouragement through praise.
Why Parents Don't Have More Respect for Teachers Many parents are friendly, supportive, and eager to work with teachers to make sure their children get the best possible education. But some parents seem to have a problem with teachers. They don't display much in the way of respect, and the reasons often have nothing to do with the teacher involved. So, given that this seems to be happening more frequently, what are the causes of this lack of respect for teachers, and where is this headed? Some of the older answers have to do with the perceived status of teachers, and one in particular is actually due to teachers' success in doing their jobs. A century ago, teachers were almost certainly among the most educated members of their communities. This meant that they were, to some extent, looked up to because of their learning (although they were also looked down upon because they didn't do “honest work�).
Today, the education levels of teachers are perceived to be much the same as most of the community, in large part because so many members of society have finished high school, and even gone beyond. Accordingly, teachers are no longer looked up to because of their education. They are, however, still looked down upon, to some extent, because they don't work 9-to-5, and they have all of those holidays. Which leads to the next reason—parents do not truly understand what teachers do in the classroom. Everyone has been to school, and therefore everyone assumes they understand what goes on there, and it doesn't seem that hard. You show up five days a week for six hours a day, talk for a while, and go home early. Never mind being able to get through to kids, never mind developing lesson plans and marking papers, never mind the difficulties of understanding how your students' minds work, never mind the theory and (difficult) practice of pedagogy, and particularly never mind the rising administrative and safety hassles. It looks, from the outside, as if teachers have a cushy gig. Of course, if most parents were to try teaching for a couple of weeks, their perspectives might change—but the chances of that happening are pretty slim. On behalf of all the ill-mannered parents who don't know any better or don't bother to take the time, allow me to say what they should, but probably won't: Thank you, for all you do. As one of my peers said to my favourite teacher, “You make your living by teaching, but your profession is humanity.”
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