Why Parenting Is More Important That School

According to Annie Murphy Paul and the studies done by the University Of California-Irvine, North Carolina State University, and Brigham University, parental involvement in their children’s academic life such as checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home has a more powerful influence on students’ academic performance than anything about the school the students attend.

Research also reveals something else: the parents, of all backgrounds, don’t need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an edge. Engaging in this reciprocal back-and- forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them a sense that their thoughts and opinion matter. All parents need to do is talk. My position on this issue presented by Annie Murphy Paul is one of agreement. I concur that talking to your children and engaging in their academic life can have a positive effect in their school performance.

All the research that were mentioned in Paul’s article reinforced and supported the claim that students perform better or are more interested in their school work if their parents are involved and show interest in their school activities. As the article mentioned, background and digital devices are not a guarantee for good grades; neither are paying for an expensive private school or tutoring. What it comes down to is interaction, talking. I believe this to be true. When a child sees their parents’ involvement in their academia they feel a sense of importance.

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In my line of work I come across children and parents who come from a variety of backgrounds. Sometimes I see children and the amount of involvement that their parents play in their academic growth show through the amount of information that the child is able to retain. The multiracial children that I’ve come across who have difficulty reading and writing have this problem because of their parents inability to speak English properly (Hipic decent) or because of the limited amount of involvement in their child’s education progression.

As a child growing up my parents’ involvement with my academics were very limited. They didn’t give me the impression that exerting great achievement in my school work was necessary so I didn’t feel the need to go to college immediately after high school. Looking back now that I’m an adult I wish they had. I feel that if they pushed me harder or talked to me and encouraged me to pursue a college career after high school it would’ve saved me a whole lot of stress as an adult, now that I’m trying to pursue my college degree. As a parent now, I throw myself into my children’s academics and social life.

I try to get involved as much as possible to show them that education is important. I want them to pursue college and to be successful. I know that my involvement is an encouragement to them and they’ve told me countless times how grateful they are for my support. My daughter is always telling me how important my presence is at her school functions and my son will remember when I miss a soccer game. I believe that just the knowledge that children have of a support group, namely their parents, in their corner gives them a sense of purpose.

They don’t want to disappoint their parents so they feel this pressure to please. After a while that sense of accomplishment becomes internalized to where they self-motivate themselves and want to do their best, want to get good grades, want to succeed and excel. I feel like it’s my job as a parent to motivate my children to be better than who they are, better than what/who I am, and to work for the things that they want. In conclusion, I believe that the studies conducted by scholars and gathered by Annie Murphy Paul are true.

I’ve seen this first hand and I am a product of poor parental involvement. I can see how my involvement in my children’s lives brings positive reinforcement to their academic progression. Personally, I believe that teacher involvement does play a role in a student’s progression but not as great an impact as the parent does on the child. The family is the central learning center for every individual and if a child see’s how important their education is to their parent(s) they in turn want it for themselves to progress.

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