Module 4 discussion concepts and topics

Parents and Their Children's Education

Giving a child education is the most precious gift a parent can offer to their child. Paying for school fees is not the only role that a parent has to play when it come to her child's education. Parents should be involved in their children education more than just financially. However some parents fail to get involved in their children's education due to some factors. The paper will look at some of these factors that have been cited as barriers to parents' involvement in their children's education.

Most parents want to get involved with their child's school life. Most parents have some life demands that act as barriers to their involvement in their child's education.one of these factors is time; most of the parents have other commitments part from their child's schooling.one of these commitments is work. Work is the overall commitment and excuses that most of the parents use for not being able to get involved in their child's education. Some parents have to work long hours and other even have two jobs and thus lack any spare time to help their children with any school related matter. They often claim that they are working so hard in order for their children to stay in school and thus claim that they have played their part when it comes to getting involved in their child's education. Another commitment apart from work is taking care of other children or dependents. Parents might not have only one child. They therefore have to care for other children within the family especially if those other children are totally dependent on them (Reynolds, 2005)

This leaves little or no tie for the parents to get involved with their children's school work. Another barrier is skills in that some parents do not have the skills or confidence of getting involved in their children's education. This is particularly with reference to the school setting.in many occasions parents often think that they are doing things wrong. For instance a parent might hesitate to help their child with their homework because they think they might be doing a wrong thing since they always think that the teaching methods have changed since they went to school. They often think that their methods might be outdated and hence confuse their child.

As teachers we have to ensure that some we have parents overcome these barriers. We have to ensure that parents can freely get involved with their child's education without any problem. For our school we have various strategies that e have put in place to ensure that parents participate in the education of their children.one of these strategies is ensuring that we hold meetings with the parents every month to discuss the progress of a child in school. These meetings are aimed at creating platform where parents interact wit the teachers and their children in a bid to find out any problem that the child might be facing. These meetings help both students and their parents to open up and share their sentiments and consequently come up with solutions that will help the child in their school work. Another strategy is holding general meetings that are aimed at discussing the curriculum and ways through which parents can get involved with their child's education. These meetings are aimed as sensitizing parents on what the curriculum involves and what is required from them by the school which will help the students in their schooling.