Parents as Partners

On Thursday last week, I had the chance to hear Sir John Abbot speak about learning in the 21st Century.  He takes an interesting perspective on how history has shaped our ability to learn and the lessons we should draw from that in how we structure our schools.  Key to his thinking is the importance of a nurturing and supportive home environment, hence the importance of parents as partners in learning.

Sir John talked about the elements for students to be successful and refers to a "three-legged stool that can find balance on any surface".  The three legs of the stool are home, community, and school, which suggests that school is only a part of the learning journey we are all on.  The home, plays a critical role in the development of the child, particularly during the first five years.  When humans are born, their brain is only about 40% developed, which means that a lot of brain development is environmental and not pre-disposed.  As a result, our innate abilities must be "activated" through stimulation in the environment, "use it or lose it", whereby lack of stimulation at an early age means brain connections aren't made and that area of development is shut off.  A nurturing and supportive home environment helps to activate our learning at an early age and stimulates our brains.  While this is critical in the first five years, it continues to be important throughout our lives in the creation of a supportive and encouraging environment for learning.

Jesse Jackson once said, "no parent is too poor to turn the TV off and labour alongside their child."  In order for our children to be successful we must have parents in partnership with the teacher and school to support student learning.  Engaging our parents in understanding the changes that we are trying to make in education is important for the long-term success of our students.  We have to make the message strong enough to bring people together.