Increasing Parent Involvement Beyond The Local Pta
Teachers at local PTA meetings invariably stress the need for increasing parent involvement
, but this concept goes beyond mere education. Involved parenting requires that we take our children more seriously - that we fully understand the magnitude of the issues which bother them and be genuinely interested in the things that interest them.
Yes, you have important adult things to take care of office work, household, neighborhood politics, family visits, ad nauseam. When Junior prattles on about what was taught in school today, how mean the new boy in class is, or how great that movie on Disney Channel was, do you often find yourself nodding distractedly, throwing a patronizing smile and delivering a reminder about homework?
Increasing parent involvement in a childs life is all about condescending to the childs level, trying to understand what is happening in the childs life and making an effort to be part of it. Since school is such a large and important part of a childs life, parents tend to give that aspect considerable importance. This is proper, but how well can we truly understand how our children react to school unless we understand them as individuals?
The things that are discussed at the local PTA meeting must make sense to you on a deeper level. Unless you have made it a habit to interact with your child at Ground Zero level, you will have little to contribute at such meetings, and will not know how to integrate what you hear there in your parenting approach.
The parent-child bond demands that you share your childs world not view it dispassionately from the outside. For instance - when your child reports an instance of bullying at school, you need to know how your child generally reacts to aggression. How can you know that unless you have observed him on the playground, or during an argument with a friend? When your child stops to stare at a violent movie poster, have you ever asked him what thoughts and feelings it evokes?
Your child needs you to be part of his life. At the local PTA meeting, you need to be able to weigh what you hear against what you intimately know about your child. Increasing parent involvement in a childs life requires that you get down on your knees more often to talk to your child face to face. At such times, you needs to let go of your adult pretensions, and to connect with the child one-on-one trying to understand what goes on, why it goes on and how one can help smoothen the ride.
by: Priya Florence Shah
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