The role of parents in educating their children

THERE has been a widespread outcry that parents have abdicated their God-given parental duties. When it comes to upbringing and educating their children, many, it is said, have delegated this noble responsibility to the schools or teachers, to be precise.The burden on the school is enormous. In fact, schools are now bent on producing of what has been arguably referred to as ‘uneducated geniuses.’ The so called ‘uneducated geniuses’ have excellent academic grades but no morals, no ethics or proper life skills that enable them to live among others. The debate rages on. Who is to blame for a child’s failure in education? Not failing Math and Chemistry per se but first, it’s the parents, second the school and third, the teachers.Education often begins way before a child attends school i.e. at home. The demands of their future work will place more emphasis on personal interaction and building close and collaborative interpersonal relationships, which is almost a difficult task to achieve unless the same sort of environment is created at home.Parents’ involvement in their child’s education is a key factor in the child’s scholastic success. The importance of involving parents in a child’s education can be justified on several counts. Parents have been rightly recognised as their children’s first teachers and role models. Experts suggest that a parent’s attitude and practices toward diversity, influences and shapes children’s attitudes toward people who are different from themselves.When parents and children explore learning together, the experience of cooperation, family support, and excitement outweighs the problems of being tired, not having enough time and embarrassment. Education includes more than just being in the classroom. The society requires more than basic education. It rewards creativity, the ability to work together, innovation, critical thinking, curiosity and the ability to ask difficult questions.Students’ participation in extracurricular activities like sports, school clubs, music and theatre is part of this development process and should receive as much support from parents as classroom workParents usually prefer to discuss only the career-oriented issues with the child and the rest of their ambitions are considered taboo. The child is always raised with pressures to excel academically in life. When children are young, parents marvel at their every little accomplishment but later, the primal ambition left by pushy parents is just to see their child topping the class. The grim epithet to the tormented lives of the children is the word ‘failure’. Sometimes the children express an inability to cope with the pressure to excel, frittering the dreams of their parents.Examination fear, sibling rivalry, issues at school, warring parents, fear of punishment, distressed parents, divorce of parents are some of the prominent reasons roosting among the children that make them vulnerable to depression.The escalating aspirations where the youth believe in achieving instant gratification without hard work, integrity and discipline, are things that parents need address as they nurture their children. Parents should not simply assume, that schools will solely parent their children without their involvement.