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Why is it important to support parents?
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It is the parents responsibility to train a child up in the way they should go. It is our job as an educator to partner with the parents. If the parent and teacher are on different pages and are saying/doing different things, the child gives confused about what they should do. We are with the children for 8 hours in a school day. In those 8 hours we should be standing with the parent(s), in communication with the parent(s), and helping the students and parent(s) any way we can.
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It is important to support parents because they have the primary responsibility to train up a child in the way he should go. “And now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you. You must observe them,” God intentionally and purposefully built the family to be a place to raise children. I must never usurp the authority of the parent, but rather come along beside them and support them in any way possible.
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The role of a parent is God ordained. He created the family unit and allowed for parents to have children to raise. Parents are entrusting the care of their children to the Christian Educator and investing financially to provide a Christian Education for their children. Our job as educators is to know our role, support the family unit, encourage parents and help where we can. I personally make at home assignments minimal, repetitive and age appropriate so students can complete most tasks in very little time with minimal help from parents.
With the current pandemic in our country, we have not been able to allow parents into the classroom and have not been able to go on field trips. This limited interaction has caused me as an educator to be diligent in weekly updates on progress, sharing achievements and areas that need improvement. Keeping lines of communication positive and open facilitates a good working relationship with the family unit.