Annie Andelfinger
helps her daughter Christine, 12, organize her notebook for
her first year of junior high school. (Michael Chow/The Arizona
Republic)
Involvement in child's school fostered at home, but travels
to the classroom
By SCOTT CRAVEN
The Arizona Republic
On the first day of school, Annie Andelfinger is well prepared
when she walks into the classroom.
She introduces herself to the teacher and hands over a note card
delineating her talents. She also proffers a humorous teacher-related
poem, hoping to get this relationship off to a good start in classic
apple-polisher style.
This kind of behavior typically would result in a swirly inside
the girls' bathroom, but seeing as how Andelfinger is a parent
and not a student, her gleeful approach is not only encouraged
but respected.
The mother of three is a textbook example of the involved parent,
personifying the hundreds of studies indicating that students
are likelier to excel when Mom and Dad participate in the learning
process. Research over the past 20 to 30 years has shown that
students whose parents are committed to their education receive
higher test scores and grades, take more difficult courses and
have fewer attendance problems.
But forget any complicated statistics linking test scores with
the number of PTA meetings attended. It boils down to this: Andelfinger's
12-, 14- and 15-year-old daughters earned straight A's last year
not simply because they are intelligent and dedicated students
but because Andelfinger came to know their teachers and helped
tailor the methods that would work best with each daughter's learning
style.
"First off, I'm better equipped to know how my children learn
best,” Andelfinger says. "Secondly, if there are any problems,
those teachers know me and will come up to me to touch base all
the time. It's all about trust.”
Although Andelfinger is the Tiger Woods of involvement, to the
point of volunteering two or more days a week at school, parents
don't have to be regulars in the teacher's lounge to be important
factors in the educational process.
Involvement also means letting your children know you are there
for them, from helping with their homework to planning a family
math night, says Catherine Jordan, head of the National Center
for Family and Community Connections With Schools, an Austin,
Texas research organization that explores ways schools can better
serve their communities.
Jordan says the numerous studies that correlate parental involvement
with students' performances make one thing clear: The most important
things parents do for their children's education occur at home.
"Anything done to nurture the learning environment has a big
impact on a student's success,” Jordan says. "It contributes to
a sense of self-confidence on the part of the students, creating
a supportive atmosphere. Not all parents have to host a school
potluck or donate several hours to a school beautification project.”
But parents should establish good working relationships with
their children's teachers. By doing so, they build trust and foster
communication, leading to a partnership that greatly benefits
students, says Jordan, adding that such relationships can be started
with phone calls and e-mails, leading parents to perhaps become
more involved.
"Knowing a teacher makes parents feel more comfortable and welcomed
at school,” Jordan says. "Those parents are more likely to become
involved in events, as well as able to do the supportive kinds
of things at home that help kids learn.”
Louis Laffitte has seen the positive impact parents can have
on schooling. Laffitte, principal of a new elementary school in
Phoenix, says students show a higher aptitude for learning when
parents show interest in what's happening in their schools.
"Education becomes important for the whole family,” Laffitte
says. "Kids accept the importance of education because parents
believe in it. It becomes something that's passed on.”
As a teacher, Laffitte encountered many parents who seemed intimidated
by school, whether because of a language barrier or a misguided
belief that they were not educated enough to participate. The
only ways around such obstacles, he says, are to phone parents
or make home visits.
"You try to find creative ways to get them on campus and dispel
the notion they can't help,” Laffitte says. "One teacher had a
lunchtime tea, very non-threatening. Someone has to reach out
first. If it's not the parent, it will have to be the school.”
Such efforts are rewarded with improved efforts on behalf of
students and, subsequently, an improved school.
"We're all stockholders in children,” Laffitte says. "Whether
we own one or two shares, like parents, or hundreds of shares,
like schools, we want to see their worth go up.”
