Parents As Co-Educators

Some would even argue that most of life is interaction with other people. Isn't work itself mostly made up of this? That is why the training children receive in a learning institution must touch on this major part of life, and why parents and teachers must work on it together.

Partners from day one

At the start of each year, Eastbridge holds a Parents' Orientation Day to share this very idea. Until every parent takes it to heart, a child's school performance almost always suffers. We have seen this happen again and again. The good news is that it can be avoided.

On the same day, we also discuss the policies that serve the core of our mission: to give each child the best learning environment and help them develop to their fullest. During the school year, some of these policies may be relaxed, tightened, modified, or set aside altogether, always in the students' best interest. A policy may sometimes feel inconvenient for parents. We will always try to address both needs as much as we can, but when only one can be met at a time, the students' welfare comes first. As co-educators, parents are asked to understand and support these policies.

Protecting the teacher's authority

Adults and children learn alike in many ways. Both learn better in an atmosphere of respect, where they can express their ideas without fear of being judged. Both also learn better where authority is properly established and respected. In a classroom, that authority comes from one source: the teacher.

This is why teachers are always reminded to guard against favoritism, unfairness, lack of concern, and lack of competence. A teacher earns or loses respect through his or her conduct in these areas, and a teacher's effectiveness depends on the respect earned from students.

Parents need to recognize this too, and do everything in their power to reinforce that respect. Avoid comments, actions, or attitudes that undermine a teacher, especially in front of the children. How can a child respect a teacher whom his or her parent does not respect? At worst, it confuses the child and makes him or her suspicious of learning from that teacher.

So, as co-educators, parents should be doubly careful about the scenes they create within a child's sight and hearing. Take special care with words, actions, and even attitudes, in public, but especially in private. It is when our guard is down, when we think no one is watching our less flattering selves, that the little recorders may be quietly saving everything on display.

Learning to serve together

Another important part of the parents' role is community service. Because students have few chances for community work during regular school days, we hold community outreach activities so this area is not neglected. Parents help the school organize and carry out these outreaches, and the children take part alongside them.

When children see their own parents giving their time to serve others, the lesson goes deeper than any classroom talk on generosity could.

More than homework help

Parents are, of course, co-educators when they help with assignments, projects, and reports. But the role reaches much further, into the intangible parts of a child's education. And none of these intangibles matters more than being positive role models of cooperation, respect, and charitable concern.

We will keep working and praying that our parents will always be one with us in building a culture of academic excellence with visible Christian virtues, because that is what the school's vision rests upon.