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Why is it important to support parents?
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Parents are sometimes intimidated by schools, depending on their own experiences. For those it’s a relief to them to know that we are regular folks with regular problems and regular abilities.
Supporting them should come naturally, since they are the support for the students.
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As stated, parents are given the primary responsibility to train up a child. Not all parents realize this and rely on the school or the church to be primary when it comes to Christian education. Parents are primary in shaping a child’s belief system and worldview and if they don’t understand this, a child may have a belief system or worldview already established before even starting school. Support for parents is important to help them completely understand their role and equip them to fulfill their role.
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If parents feel unimportant to their child’s school, it’s incredibly frustrating to the parent. They feel like they are being told what todo without any feedback from parents. Almost like a dictatorship. For example, we have about 15 fundraisers that run September through December and parents were completely over it. They were tapped financially and mentally because everyday was something. Schools need to realize that families have lives and activities other than school. yes school is important, but families hit rough times and go through hard transitions, if we can’t come along side of our families and help them, what are we doing? Or better question, what are we not doing to support them?
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As we support our parents, they are more engaged in their child’s education. They are better equipped to partner with you in their educational and spiritual needs when they are involved as well. If we can also support them before and after school with care, they are better able to support their family financially.
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It is important to support parents because parents have been given by God the primary responsibility of raising their child or children. In our society, we are beginning to see more and more when the rights of the parent are being taken away by the government, by healthcare, by schools. There are laws dictating the ages of when children can be left at home or walk to the park by themselves. When children see a physician nowadays, the doctor asks the parent to step out of the room so that they can privately talk to the child. Parents no longer have the right to see their own child’s medical records due to HIPPA laws. And schools are telling parents what books their children can or cannot read, what lessons they need in sexuality, what bathrooms they can use. Children can now sue their own parents. This is the very opposite of God’s commandment to honor thy father and mother. I understand the reasons for most of these policies, but to take away the general rights of parents to raise their children in the manner they see fit is to mess with God’s grand design for the family. I love that our school constantly talks about the idea that we are partnering with parents in the education of their children. We are reminded by department leaders that every interaction with a parent is a PR event. This means that we need to be very intentional with how we talk to the parents of our students when we have difficulties with student behavior or academic performance.