The transition to college life is characterized by newfound independence, most notably from parents. Prior to college, parents not only kept their kids in line when they were living at home, but they were there to support their children when needed. Not as much in high school, but in earlier years, parents were a source of enormous help with math problems, money and dealing with the everyday anxieties of adolescence.
More often now than in the past, parents are shirking responsibility for their kids’ education while letting trivialities like texting, television or the culture of today fill the void as unsatisfactory surrogate parents.
A new
This bill stresses the importance of parental engagement in the education of today’s youth. A review of over 27 studies about parent-child relationships and education conducted by
However, if the parent is tied up at work — which is more likely to happen in low-wage occupations as is reported by the Families and Work Institute — this may be difficult. The conflict between time for work and time for kids is exactly what this bill is trying to address. A parent should never fear their job would be jeopardized if they took more time off to go to a school function for their kid. The bill quells this fear and encourages parents to be involved in their kids’ education.
Doing things like attending parent conferences is one of the most beneficial actions a parent can take to monitor and re-evaluate their kid’s learning habits and their role as a parent. Parents can easily look at their kid’s report card and ask the inevitable, “How was school today?” question, but they likely will not get an accurate idea of how their kid is doing. By sitting face-to-face with their child’s teacher and hearing the teacher’s candid concerns, parents who care wouldn’t be able to let their kid watch “Hannah Montana” or MTV all day when they are falling behind in reading.
Whether a kid is doing OK in school or not, his or her education still needs parental advocacy. Middle school, and even high school curricula don’t adequately challenge all students as much as needed, so extra reading and skills development is necessary. However, without a parent to encourage them, kids can easily just turn on the boob tube, getting to know characters on their favorite television shows better than their homework problems or their parents.
The “just getting by” mindset creates problems for college students who felt they could coast through high school without learning good study habits or critical thinking skills that college necessitates. It’s common for students to think that if they go to lecture, do the readings and study for the exam, they deserve a good grade.
Slacking in college is generally easier too. With freedom from parents’ pestering, it becomes easier to slack because they have to be their own advocates for their success in college. A student’s GPA is very much his or her own problem or prize.
A lack of parent involvement can only be explained by laziness on the part of the parent. For a parent to be OK with shipping their kid off to school for seven hours a day and allowing their lives to be shaped exclusively by occasionally unenthused, unmotivating teachers is a detriment to their relationship with their children and their child’s success later in life.
Parents are the best role models a student can have, and they know how to connect to their kid better than anyone in the education system or in a more meaningful manner than any form of technology can. The Carpenter-Black bill will make this crucial, meaningful contact a more practical proposition for parents throughout
Patrick Johnson ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in English and journalism.
