Tuesday, August 28, 2007

7. Parental role vs. Teacher role in Education


Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be,
the future not us to see...Que Sera..Sera... but your education counts!



The debate surrounding the roles of teachers and parents is one of the most charged in education. At one time, teachers took all the blame if the students did not do well in their studies while at another time; parents were accused of neglecting their roles as educators and expecting teachers to do all the work. So, who actually has a more pivotal role in ensuring student is successful in his studies?

There are two camps of thought to this question. One which agrees that parents plays a more important role while another strongly believes than teachers are the ones who will determine how good students are in their studies. The former argues that parental role is very important in the early development of children’s education. This is not surprising as early and consistent parental involvement in a child’s education such as instilling reading habits, interpersonal communication skills, identifying their child’s learning pattern and encouraging them to ask questions will expose them to good learning habits and liking for knowledge. Those who want more parent involvement strongly believe that parents should not just be merely the field trip helper or the lunch lady and argues parents have to take more interest in their children’s education. Parents need to be asked about how their child learns best. They need to share their career expertise with the children. Today's educators need to remember that parents are the child's first and foremost teacher; parents, too, are experts, and teachers should learn from them. It is interesting to note that academic achievement and parental involvement are strongly linked in the research. Children who come from loving and caring families who provide them moral support are more likely to be successful.

The opposing camp justifies that although parents do play a role at a early stage, students will have to depend more on their teachers when they pursue their education at primary, secondary and tertiary level. As students spend a lot of time in school compare to their pre-school days, a teacher has to shoulder the responsibility of educating the children especially because nowadays is common to have both parents working and have less time to be with their children even at home. The opposition argues that teachers are also well-trained to educate children unlike parents and have more resources at school. Moreover, most teachers are parents as well so they have the best of both worlds. Another prove that teachers are important in determining a student’s academic achievement is that good teachers are always highly sought after and parents would usually sent their children to a school or university where the educators are very experience and has produce many successful students. Although computers and other multimedia learning devices has been introduced from time to time, the demand for quality teachers has not drop and many people prefer sending their children to school than home schooling their children themselves.

As a conclusion, teachers play a more significant role than parents in education but the role of parents cannot be overlooked. Instead of debating whose role is more important it is wiser to find a common ground where both sides can work together to improve the quality of education with this changing times. Undeniably, both teacher’s and parent’s role complement each other as we need both hands to clap or give a round of applause.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not sure where to post this but I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of National Clicks?

Can someone help me find it?

Overheard some co-workers talking about it all week but didn't have time to ask so I thought I would post it here to see if someone could help me out.

Seems to be getting alot of buzz right now.

Thanks