Are Family Friendly Schools the Future of Education?

February 26, 2010

From carpools to free snacks and babysitting during PTA meetings, some schools offer small perks so parents can actively participate in their children's education. My daughter's school even has a program that provides eighth graders to babysit your children (free of charge, the students get community service hours) during the school's annual fundraiser. Do you think these types of conveniences will become more mainstream in the future? Tell us which family friendly programs your child's school offers.

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4 Comments

amandachalynn 3 years 12 weeks

I actually have to disagree this time, based on my personal experience. My son will be attending kindergarten this year, and he's going to whats called a school of choice here in our district. This means that any kid from any part of the city has an equal chance of getting in via a lottery system. At this school, parent participation is required. You must have a certain number of volunteer hours for your child to keep attending. It sounds rough, but in my opinion it's worth it. Since there are more adults present, the teacher has more freedom to really give the students more one on one time. There is also a tighter behavior standard at this school, so there is more discipline than a traditional public school. For parents who work full time and can not be in the class, there are opportunities to do simple things that help out a lot, like doing cut outs for art or washing smocks, towels and other laundry that the class produces. The students here get a well rounded education, and I believe it is directly caused by the parent involvement. Unfortunately I don't think that's the kind of parent involvement that this article was talking about. Free snacks for parents won't do a darn thing to free up teachers time so she can focus more on the students. I learned about real world history in high school, not just the US impact on other parts of the world. History has always been my personal favorite so I remember it well. Maybe it's because I grew up in a really diverse part of California. They didn't want parents getting upset about their culture not being included!

starbucks 3 years 12 weeks

Anonymous, I have to agree. I used to be an exchange student in Oregon an comparing what I learned there and in Germany in the same grade, the US high school performed very poorly. All you got were multiple choice quizzes you learned by heart the day before. No thinking required. Global history was only about how the US helped all the world. Really, and it's not just my school. Pretty much everyone I know who did a high school year comes home telling everyone how pathetic the curriculum is. From New York to Texas it seems to be the same everywhere.

3 years 12 weeks

not all parents would want to deal with other parents (the over-zealous types). i don't really think it matters where the parents show their support (school or home) just as long as their children are getting the resources they need to succeed. Also, the students in our country, US, are falling rapidly behind other countries to the point where our government seems to be recruiting more and more foreigners to do our engineering, intel, etc. Family friendly would be a great support for them emotionally, but its not gonna do it. Our children need so much MORE discipline (in school and home). Our schools lack this very much...it's becoming a more and more competitive world and we need to catch up. Free babysitting during PTA is great, but it should be time used to teach them as well, not just playtime.

mommahello 3 years 12 weeks

When parents are hesitant to become involved, the student does poorly, on the whole. So, get the parents comfortable. The child benefits greatly.