Posted by Mrs. Wilson
Last week, All Saints Catholic Academy hosted an Open House when we welcomed prospective families to help them better learn about All Saints Catholic Academy and all it has to offer. We had a great turnout and I was happy to meet so many new people and learn more about the paths that brought these prospective parents to us. Part of how I learn about that path is through the questions they ask. At this Open House, I fielded a number of questions about parental involvement. Parents were curious to learn about opportunities for them to attend events, presentations, and just be part of their children’s experiences during the school day and not just beyond it.
Most research supports the idea that the more involved parents are in their children’s education, the better the children perform (let’s disregard that op ed piece in the NY Times last April, indicating that parental involvement is overrated). Parental involvement can mean a lot of things and it can be defined differently depending on interpretation and application. The same can be said for defining student success. To simplify things, let’s define parental involvement as regular communication with teachers, age-appropriate assistance on homework/projects, and a physical presence at school on a somewhat regular basis. Let’s define student success as consistent attendance, attentiveness and participation in class, and satisfactory performance on assignments.
It seems that in an effort to maximize student safety and increase productivity in schools, parents aren’t as welcome during the school day in some schools. I can understand that logic; as an administrator, student safety is paramount to anything else that happens in a school building. And, well, productivity is pretty important, too. Can parental involvement and productivity co-exist safely? I think it can. In fact, it has been co-existing safely here at All Saints Catholic Academy for seventeen years.
Here, we believe parents are the primary teachers of their children. In order for students to fully realize their potential, there must be a healthy and productive partnership between school and home. We need to fully understand the hopes and dreams you have for your children so that we may assist you and your child with the acquisition/realization of these hopes and dreams. The healthy and productive partnership we seek at school can be attained through regular communication. Email is great and phone calls are helpful. But much can be lost in these efficient methods – having an actual face-to-face conversation is incredibly helpful.
Knowing what is going on in your child’s day-to-day life at school is a great way to help your child be a successful student. It is also a way to stay connected with your child – especially as he or she approaches adolescence (“How was school today?” “Fine.” “What did you learn?” “Nothing.”). Part of staying connected to your child is by having a physical presence in his or her school. Now, I realize that not everyone can volunteer to help serve lunch every day, but attending Honor Roll Assemblies, popping in at lunchtime to say hi if you’re driving by, or attending a classroom presentation or Variety Show is a great way to sneak in a physical presence.
It makes me sad to learn that these opportunities are few and far between in other school settings. I pride myself in knowing every make and model of each family’s car here at school. I love that I know not only every parent here, but nearly all grandparents, too. When people say All Saints Catholic Academy is a family, I have to wonder if it’s because we welcome families here. We love seeing dads enjoying taco bar day and parents organizing a Cross-Country Ski Program for our Upper School. Many of our substitute teachers are parents here and one even runs a weekly Spanish class. I can’t wait to see the new book bins in our tech lab, thanks to one of our kindergarten dads, and our sports program would not be the emerging program it is without parent volunteers. And what about all those great school dance chaperones? Who knew a certain dad of a third and sixth grader was such a big fan of The Sugar Hill Gang (I won’t name names)?! I could go on and on. You see, parental presence is the lifeblood of our school. The benefits reach far beyond the obvious.
We would love to hear your comments below.
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