HOME and SCHOOL as PARTNERS in EDUCATION

Post date: Apr 8, 2013 6:27:22 AM

by:

VIOLETA M. MENA

Principal, Puerto Rivas Elementary School

The family is the natural venue or seats for all education especially the parents who have the primary responsibility of nourishing their children which go through maturation until adulthood is in the environment of the family in their home. It is the family that becomes the basic social unit uniquely suited in transmitting cultural, ethical and social values essential for the development and wellbeing of a child in a society of which it is’ part. Parents by virtue of their divine vocation and commitment have the anterior duty and right, the primary responsibility, to educate their children.

Arising from the right to educate is the right to choose the school where to send their children, either in a private exclusive school or in a public school. The home indeed was the first school of life of our children. The proper education is first and foremost, the responsibility of parents, where they can provide it competently to their children.

The role of the school is to provide formation that the home cannot do and to collaborate with the home in aspects of formation which it can provide. According to Severina M Villegas, Asst. Dean of Education in UA&P “Home-school collaboration in simple terms, implies three elements. Most important, it means parents and teachers getting together periodically to know the child and his class better and to agree on common directions to take, especially as regards his education in the human virtues. Second, it means the school initiating seminars and other activities to enable parents to understand their role in the delicate task of child education and to carry out its role with greater thoughtfulness and perspective. Third, it means the parents initiating programs that would make the school the center point of their social life outside the home. In other words, home-school collaboration includes parents and teachers attempting to live unity of criteria in promoting a wholesome academic and personal formation atmosphere at home and in school”.

The school and the home coin side acting on the child from ages 5 to 20, which is the schooling period that corresponds generally to three phases: primary schooling, secondary school and tertiary education. Each phase of schooling has developmental stages for the intellect, skills, and the will of the child. So as parents and teachers we should know these stages very well and spend time and effort in coordinating with each other. Home and school, parents and teacher, must sustain the passion of teaching children the truth and defending it.

It is the school that takes the initiative in home-school partnership. Teachers have to know the parents of their pupils/students and try to deal with them as their peers. Teachers should know how to manage the varied hindrances to our parents, but this can only be attained by friendship and confidence between our partners through varied opportunities such as class meeting, school affairs, parents — Teachers’ conference and PTA activities and in the end, the goal of our partnership with parents the holistic development of the child, a human being.