Empowering parents

By Ron Toyne

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I do not know of any Iowa parent who does not want his or her child to perform well in school, but I cannot help wondering if the parents of Iowa's school-age children have all the information and skills necessary to ensure their child consistently performs at high academic levels. How many parents have a well-thought-out, proven “home run” type of game plan to help their children achieve academic success?

Imagine that before each child starts school, the parents are required to attend a seminar for one or two evenings. This idea will succeed only if it has been mandated to be a statewide effort by educational and legislative leaders.

The seminar would be geared around a handbook called The Parent's Guide to Maximum Student Performance. This yet-to-be-invented handbook could contain many topics, including recommendations on how to set up a proper study place in the home.

This “home learning center” would be a place conducive to good study habits, containing a proper chair, desk, good lighting, map of the world on the wall, a calendar showing student assignment deadlines, dictionary, note-taking and writing materials and more. Recommendations on minimum daily use of this home study space should be given, too.

Another topic this handbook might cover is gaming activities specifically designed to reinforce a child's learning of the weekly spelling list or perhaps multiplication tables. Imagine a well-designed set of competitions, suggested by this handbook, taking place around the family dinner table.

Include technical explanations that would help a parent understand differences in student leaning styles, ways for parents to model positive behaviors, too. Also, include questioning techniques that a parent can use when talking to their child about their school day or after reading them a story to improve their comprehension.

The list of ideas seems almost endless, so careful thought and consideration of the content of this handbook is necessary. I do believe Iowa educators and leaders have the expertise to create such a “nuts and bolts” day-to-day handbook for parents.

It would be important to prioritize the many recommendations in such a book, so parents would know clearly where to start in supporting their child's education, especially if their child has a learning disability or other serious issue. A lot of research already has been done and written that could be compiled and condensed toward such a handbook.

The evening seminar would review the topics in the handbook to aid in parental understanding and answer any questions parents may have. More important, the seminar would be conducted in an engaging atmosphere, where coaching, cheerleading and mentoring is used to “fire up” parents to be effective partners with teachers. Utilizing skilled and enthusiastic educators from each school district to lead this seminar would make it that much more effective.

To keep this information relevant as children progress through school, add handbook content and offer refresher sessions at the beginning of middle and high school. The handbook could be an ongoing topic of discussion at parent/teacher conferences.

There might be a concern about parents who are reluctant, unwilling, too busy or just too lazy to do this. The way to overcome that is just crank up the activity big-time here in Iowa and excite all to join in.

This new aspect of the Iowa education culture will have to be strongly promoted to parents for this “Iowa Great Teaching and Learning Initiative” to be possible. Just imagine the excellence that could be produced by systematically empowering Iowa's parents and giving them the knowledge and skills needed to enhance their children's academic potential.

Ron Toyne of Cedar Rapids was an Iowa educator of 36 years, teaching and coaching in Iowa high schools for 10 years, then teaching and administrative work in the Industrial Technologies Department at Kirkwood Community College. Two of his daughters are Iowa educators. Comments: wa0ajf@aol.com