When a parent or special person in a student’s life is able to come to school once in a while to have lunch or sit in on a class, it does more than brighten a child’s day.
Adult involvement, formally or informally, in schooling can bridge the gap, particularly for a younger child, between student and teacher.
Recently, the Montville Public School system, along with thousands of other districts nationwide celebrated community involvement and educators’ commitment by hosting American Education Week.
Superintendent of Schools David Erwin said the event supports a district philosophy: community involvement strengthens the educational system.
Since 1919, various educational and veteran-based organizations have made an effort to stress the importance of education. The program, sponsored by the National Education Association, among others, has evolved since it was first held in 1921, but the emphasis remains that public education is a “basic right and our responsibility,” according to the NEA.
In Montville, in an effort to include the greater community in the educational process, the district invited parents and interested residents to come into the system’s six schools and visit.
Erwin and others said the invitation is extended throughout the year, but a concerted effort is made during the week to remind people that they are welcome. They are just asked to call first, for safety reasons.
At the Mohegan Elementary School, the district’s most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse school, parents and community members took advantage by having lunch, playing at recess, or shadowing their student during class.
Principal Lorilyn V. Caron keeps a list of community-based events on her office calendar. A Veterans’ Day Breakfast; student concerts and movie nights; and holiday bazaars are just a few of the events scheduled this year. Caron meets monthly with a parent advisory group and said it helps that the school’s parent-teacher organization, a separate group, is very active.
In addition to American Education Week, the school hosts a “first week” celebration that gives parents a chance to look at the curriculum and familiarize themselves with the new grade level’s requirements. One night in September, the students get a chance to show their families around during Back to School Night.
“We’re all working on behalf of children, so if we work together we’ll make the job easier,” Caron said.
For parent Corinne Mooney, it makes sense for parents to be involved, in some manner, with their children’s education. Parents help bridge the gap between a student, particularly a young one, and the teacher.
“Even 20 minutes is well worth it,” Mooney, a mother of two, said recently as she sorted and distributed mail in the Mohegan School office.
As she explained it, to some children, teachers and administrators can appear unapproachable. A parent helps bridge the gap for the child and creates a stronger connection between the two.
Mooney, a lunch monitor at Mohegan who also works in the office, said when her son Chad was in the school, administrators encouraged her to be active in supporting his classroom. Chad is now 13 years old and in seventh grade at Tyl Middle School.
Now and again, more so at the elementary school level, parents will come in for lunch, recess, or sit in the back of the classroom, school officials said.
Mooney and paraprofessional Michele Anderson said just their parental presence can be enough to lift any child’s spirits, not necessarily their own.
While Caron said at times some students can be saddened by a peer’s parent coming to school when their own parent is not able, Mooney said more often than not all of the students think it’s cool when a father, for example, comes to shoot hoops on the playground during recess.
Although now an employee at the school working with a special needs student, Anderson began volunteering in the classrooms of her three children: Mohegan students Ian and Joshua Anderson, 7 and 11, respectively, and high school student Nicolas Bellerose, 15.
Help with crafts, reading and math lessons, and general support can be priceless for teachers, if asked first. Getting involved with lessons also makes it easier for parents to help out with homework or to reinforce what was taught that week, Anderson said.
It also helps if a behavioral problem arises. Caron said it makes it easier, and less stressful for all involved, if the child, parent, and administrator are familiar with each other.
By MEGAN BARD
Staff Writer
History of American Education Week
Celebrated annually the week before Thanksgiving, American Education Week was first considered in 1919 in response to the country’s concern that “25 percent of World War I draftees were illiterate and 9 percent were physically unfit.” Members of the National Education Association and the American Legion met that year to plan how to raise awareness “of the importance of education.”
In 1921, the NEA approved this resolution, designating one week to focus on education: “An educational week...observed in all communities annually for the purpose of informing the public of the accomplishments and needs of the public schools and to secure the cooperation and support of the public in meeting those needs.”
Since that time, several educational and veteran-based organizations have become sponsors of the effort to spotlight education.
Source: National Education Association Web site