Parents and Education

1944 Words4 Pages

Throughout my life I have been very lucky; I have a mom that supported me. She was there to drop me off at school, she made sure I had a ride home, she drove me around to countless cross country practice, and she always checked to see if my homework was done. While at the time I might not have realized it, but my mom was instilling in me the importance of school and my education. When my mom helped me through long division and my time tables, she was showing me more than how do divide large numbers, she showed me that be taking time out of her day for me to learn, that education is very important to have and that it is a worthy investment. Since being in college I have gotten the opportunity to meet a lot of people. All of them have their own story. While some people might have had similar upbringings, others had quite different ones. As I continue to meet new people throughout my college career, I always wonder how there upbringing is and how it translates to their school schooling. As I wonder this I cannot help but to ask the question: How does parental involvement affect a child’s educational career?

One thing I was always curious about is simply why parents help their kids. While it seems like a very simple question, I think it is a very important one. As Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey et al wrote in a 2001 article in Educational Psychology: “…parents decide to become involved in students' homework because they believe they should be involved, believe their involvement will make a difference, and perceive that their involvement is wanted and expected” (206). I think my mom would agree to this statement and her reasoning for helping me would include a majority of the list. Because parents feel that being involved in education is...

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...school functions. Children perceive parental guidance as a good thing and enjoy working with parents at home as well as occasional visits to schools. Parents can take advantage of certain strategies that their kids can benefit from. These ultimately lead to better academic society and better behaved kids. As I am looking back on my childhood and early school career I now realize how great of a family I had. The parents that supported me and helped me through school has given me opportunities that might not be had I had less supportive parents. Because of my parent’s dedication to my education, I in turn am able to make education a main focus and a tool to a successful life. This will be a great benefit that I hope parents realize is important. I hope education about parental involvement can be spread so the barriers that slow parental involvement can be stopped.

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