Many fathers today are more actively involved with the education of their children than their own fathers were, even during the summer months. Hooray for modern men!
In a recent online survey commissioned by Kumon Math and Reading Centers (April 2009), dads feel one of their main parenting roles is to help their children excel in school. A full 50 percent of the fathers surveyed indicated that they were more likely than their wives to motivate kids to do schoolwork.
Other survey highlights:
3 out of 4 dads were aware of summer learning opportunities
6 out of 10 dads enroll their kids in organized summer learning programs
For more stats from the survey or more info about Kumon (an after-school math and reading program), visit www.kumon.com.
Happy Father's Day!
Showing posts with label parent involvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parent involvement. Show all posts
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 14, 2008
PTA -- Not just for moms
What an interesting election year this has been. We looked at the possibility of a woman running the country, and Chuck Saylors became President of the National Parent Teacher Association. Mr. Saylors is PTA's first male national president-elect. It took nearly two decades of active membership for him to be handed the reins.
With more than 5.5 million members, PTA focuses on being a strong and powerful voice for children, on being a resource for families and communities, and on being a champion for children's wellbeing and education.
Friday, June 13, 2008
National Fatherhood Initiative
The National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) strives to improve the wellbeing of children by increasing the number of kids who will grow up with involved, capable, responsible, committed dads.
Roland C. Warren, President of NFI, oversees the organization's national strategy for increasing the number of involved fathers.
NFI's strategy to strengthen fatherhood in all segments of society can be wrapped up in the "3 E's"
- Educating
- Equipping
- Engaging
www.fatherhood.org
Black Star Project
Our mission is to provide educational services that help pre-school through college students succeed academically and become knowledgeable and productive citizens with the support of their parents, families, schools and communities.
The Black Star project sponsors father involvement/male involvement programs, including the Million Father March, Men in Schools Day, and the Fathers Club.
Philip Jackson, founder and Executive Director of the Black Star Project, is a national leader who advocates for community involvement in education. He also champions the importance of educating parents, so that their children will be properly educated.
Their mission is "to provide educational services that help pre-school through college students succeed academically and become knowledgeable and productive citizens with the support of their parents, families, schools, and communities. The Black Star Project also has scholarship programs for disadvantages students of all races who are seeking post-secondary education.
To find involvement opportunities in your community, visit their website, www.blackstarproject.org
The Black Star project sponsors father involvement/male involvement programs, including the Million Father March, Men in Schools Day, and the Fathers Club.
Philip Jackson, founder and Executive Director of the Black Star Project, is a national leader who advocates for community involvement in education. He also champions the importance of educating parents, so that their children will be properly educated.
Their mission is "to provide educational services that help pre-school through college students succeed academically and become knowledgeable and productive citizens with the support of their parents, families, schools, and communities. The Black Star Project also has scholarship programs for disadvantages students of all races who are seeking post-secondary education.
To find involvement opportunities in your community, visit their website, www.blackstarproject.org
Thursday, June 12, 2008
MORE - National fatherhood alliance
A lot more families will have more reason to recognize their fathers this Father’s Day.That’s because more men are getting involved in their child’s education than ever before, according to recent poll results released by the national PTA. In fact, almost 50 percent of parent leaders said that the level of male involvement has increased at their PTA in the last three years.
The nation’s top male involvement organizations are looking to continue the trend. That’s why today they joined at National PTA Headquarters to announce an unprecedented partnership—Men Organized to Raise Engagement (MORE).
Simply put, research shows that greater involvement of men in the lives of children helps them achieve success socially, intellectually and academically. The MORE partnership intends to ensure greater father and male involvement to produce positive outcomes and successful relationships for children, parents, schools and communities.
MORE will call attention to the need to increase male involvement across the country by:
- Working with schools and communities to provide programs that engage fathers and positive male figures in the educational and social development of children;
- Developing male leaders who work with fathers and male role models to enhance positive male parenting and involvement with youth;
- Acting as a resource for families, communities and schools on fatherhood initiatives and issues; and
- Increasing the visibility and outreach of the quality programming of the coalition members.
For more information, go to www.pta.org/MORE.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Recognizing the Signs Of Bullying
Nearly 30 percent of
According to Melissa Holt, research scientist with the
Students who are bullied are repeatedly victimized over an extended period of time. Whereas boys are more likely to be involved in physical bullying, girls are at higher risk for relational bullying (gossiping and social isolation).
Often the victims experience adverse psychological effects and poor school adjustment. They are more lonely and depressed, tend to avoid going to school, and have thoughts of suicide. Following are some tips for parents, children, and educators on dealing with a bullying situation:
For Students
• Tell a trusted adult about the bullying.
• Take a friend, or group of friends, along when speaking to a trusted adult. This creates a community of support and provides a model for how to address these issues.
• If students feel comfortable and safe, speak up when a peer is being bullied.
• Treat peers with respect.
For Parents
• Model respectful interactions.
• Talk with your children and create a space in which they feel safe to discuss fears.
• Be aware of warning signs of bullying.
• Know your children’s friends.
• Take time to connect with your children.
• If your child is being bullied, alert school officials and help your child get assistance. NEVER tell your child to ignore the bullying.
• Expect the bullying to stop. By setting a high standard, parents are demanding that change and consequences occur. They are also empowering the child to take action and shed the victim role.
For Teachers/School Staff
• Create a school climate that does not tolerate bullying.
• Respond quickly to bullying episodes. Most importantly, let students involved in the bullying episode and bystanders know that you do not condone this type of behavior.
• Develop classroom activities that include all students.
• Increase adult supervision at times that bullying occurs most frequently, such as at recess and during lunch.
• Integrate materials into the curriculum that address bullying and engage bullied students in designing policies to address bullying.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Homework for parents that affects my CHILD's grade??
I think the idea of getting parents involved in school is a good idea. Have the child interview his father about what he thinks of the Franz Kafka piece. And the child write a paper. I AM involved, incredibly involved, in supplementing my child's education. I would be involved by saying, "What are you reading? Oh...what did you think? Why do you think that? Would you like to hear what I think?" That is how my brothers and I got into deep discussions about things like religion, history, even sleep disorders, and ways in which classical music is or is not related to modern rap.
To assume that a parent is not involved in the child's education just because they do not have the the ability to do literary analysis is a little uppity, isn't it?
It assumes that everyone has access to a computer. In theory, they do, but what of the disabled mother without a car who can not get to the public library? Or the father working two or three blue-collar jobs to support the kids because the mom died and he can't get to the hardware store to fix the hole in the wall, let alone to a computer?
What about the "have-nots?" We could not afford a computer back then. I did not own one until I bought one second-hand for $200 when I was 21 years old. I was scared of MS Word still. My mother still is. I type and format her resume. She still will not make purchases on the Internet, and barely uses or understands e-mail. I taught her how to do an Internet search less than 2 years ago.
My father had a sixth grade education. I wrote my own notes for school, and he signed them, with the home phone number, so teachers could call (which they usually did at the beginning of every year) to confirm that he was aware of the notes. At my high school, they were more sensitive and understanding about it than at the elitist middle school I had attended. Why?
Because their was a multicultural population. And the highest number of homes with parental illiteracy and/or without computers are those of racial and ethnic minorities. And those teachers were extremely understanding when I said, "He has me write everything for him. He can't spell or read very well." Most would just nod and accept the note when I was at that school.
Yet that high school has consistently been ranked one of the top 100 in the nation. Some of us had not lived with parents since age 13, 14, or 15. There were emancipated students.
My father worked 12 to 16 hours a day at manual labor. And MY grade would have suffered in this school in New York when (not if, when) he didn't weigh in on Franz Kafka, et al? MY grade??
Do you know what my dad would have said? "Franz Kafka? Who the he** is that? Frank Kahfa? What? I'm going to bed. I have to be up in 4 hours." And he had worked for years to support our family. He was involved in my education by making sure my report card looked good and giving me money at the end of each term to go shopping. He was involved by giving me a curfew, and not letting me accept calls after a certain time, and not allowing me to talk on the phone to more than three people a night for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch. I thought he was awful for it for years, but he was teaching me self-discipline, which makes all the difference in college. He was preparing me for some of the basics of adult life -- commitment, finding balance. THAT was his job as a parent. It was not his job to be on par with me intellectually. He was not called to be a scholar or a scribe. He was called to be a father, a husband, a laborer.
Many kids at my high school were fortunate to have lunch every day. A computer at home was still (and is still) a luxury and a novelty in many racio-ethnic circles. Because of finances.
I went to a magnet high school. Many of our assignments were very high brow because we were being groomed, many of us, for Ivy League education. I was reading above my parents' heads by third grade. But no one ever assumed that my parents' education was on par with my own. Or that our parents had the same resources for learning disabilities, or even choices between picking berries or manual labor or a waitressing job or a chicken coop, by 12 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/education/04homework.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1191772889-MPlMV7v3r+XO75BbypPLsQ&oref=slogin
To assume that a parent is not involved in the child's education just because they do not have the the ability to do literary analysis is a little uppity, isn't it?
It assumes that everyone has access to a computer. In theory, they do, but what of the disabled mother without a car who can not get to the public library? Or the father working two or three blue-collar jobs to support the kids because the mom died and he can't get to the hardware store to fix the hole in the wall, let alone to a computer?
What about the "have-nots?" We could not afford a computer back then. I did not own one until I bought one second-hand for $200 when I was 21 years old. I was scared of MS Word still. My mother still is. I type and format her resume. She still will not make purchases on the Internet, and barely uses or understands e-mail. I taught her how to do an Internet search less than 2 years ago.
My father had a sixth grade education. I wrote my own notes for school, and he signed them, with the home phone number, so teachers could call (which they usually did at the beginning of every year) to confirm that he was aware of the notes. At my high school, they were more sensitive and understanding about it than at the elitist middle school I had attended. Why?
Because their was a multicultural population. And the highest number of homes with parental illiteracy and/or without computers are those of racial and ethnic minorities. And those teachers were extremely understanding when I said, "He has me write everything for him. He can't spell or read very well." Most would just nod and accept the note when I was at that school.
Yet that high school has consistently been ranked one of the top 100 in the nation. Some of us had not lived with parents since age 13, 14, or 15. There were emancipated students.
My father worked 12 to 16 hours a day at manual labor. And MY grade would have suffered in this school in New York when (not if, when) he didn't weigh in on Franz Kafka, et al? MY grade??
Do you know what my dad would have said? "Franz Kafka? Who the he** is that? Frank Kahfa? What? I'm going to bed. I have to be up in 4 hours." And he had worked for years to support our family. He was involved in my education by making sure my report card looked good and giving me money at the end of each term to go shopping. He was involved by giving me a curfew, and not letting me accept calls after a certain time, and not allowing me to talk on the phone to more than three people a night for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch. I thought he was awful for it for years, but he was teaching me self-discipline, which makes all the difference in college. He was preparing me for some of the basics of adult life -- commitment, finding balance. THAT was his job as a parent. It was not his job to be on par with me intellectually. He was not called to be a scholar or a scribe. He was called to be a father, a husband, a laborer.
Many kids at my high school were fortunate to have lunch every day. A computer at home was still (and is still) a luxury and a novelty in many racio-ethnic circles. Because of finances.
I went to a magnet high school. Many of our assignments were very high brow because we were being groomed, many of us, for Ivy League education. I was reading above my parents' heads by third grade. But no one ever assumed that my parents' education was on par with my own. Or that our parents had the same resources for learning disabilities, or even choices between picking berries or manual labor or a waitressing job or a chicken coop, by 12 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/education/04homework.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1191772889-MPlMV7v3r+XO75BbypPLsQ&oref=slogin
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