Who is
responsible for raising our children? It’s
a question that has surfaced a number of times over the past few months. You are all aware of the old adage…..“it
takes a village to raise a child”. That’s
how it used to be. Today some parents
live in an “us” v. “them” world; “us” being parents and “them” being the school
board. So what does parental engagement even mean and are parents actual
inhabitants of that village? Do we as
parents want to be engaged…or do we only want to be involved with our children’s
education?
Dr. Debbie Pushor, professor at the
University of Saskatchewan: “With parent involvement, the scripted story
of school as protectorate does not change.
Because the school is still setting the agenda and determining what
roles parents are to play within that agenda, the hierarchical structure of
educators as experts, acting in the best interests of the less-knowing parents,
is maintained.”
Parental engagement looks slightly
different: “Parent engagement, different from parent involvement, is an
alternative way to bring teachers and parents together in schools, an
alternative possibility for changing the scripted story of school.”
When parents find themselves up
against a brick wall and demonstrate apprehension over social policy, sexual
education curriculum, bullying situations, the type of food permitted at school
etc., what is actually taking place is a lack of desire to sit back and conform
to the ways dictated by our educational institution. They are then met with the offensive and
react in a defensive manner. When this
takes place, parents are actually not interested at pointing a finger at
individuals within their school board and schools. Rather, they point their finger at the system.
In a recent post on “Sheila Speaking”:
“Parents don’t understand teaching and learning.
Parents speak in the language of terms and compliance because that’s how
we speak to them.
They understand grades, behavior, some of the fundamentals of literacy,
and other abstractions like effort, inspiration, success, and failure.
But what if they understood how people learn even half as well as most
teachers? What if they understood the pros and cons of certain assessment forms
(this isn’t rocket science), the inherent limitations of letter grades (there’s
no way they don’t already have an instinct for this), or how to coach critical
thinking and observation on a daily basis?
Parents are the sleeping giants in education. Think of them as students
with 25 years of life experience added on. If they had any clue how poorly
education serves most students (no matter how “successful” the student
navigates education in its current form), they’d redirect anger currently
pointed at teachers and principals, and point it instead at policymakers, and
perhaps even take up the task themselves as entrepreneurs.
Hey, there’s an idea."
I welcome your thoughts on this!
