 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That Parents Can Provide: In questions like these, common sense and good teaching coincide. They can also be fun, for parents as well as children. More than anything else, a good book is something that parents can provide parents and children can enjoy together. Teachers have undoubted skills and experience that parents can provide most parents do not have; parents have the advantage of emotional bonds conducive to learning that parents can provide schools can never provide to quite the same extent. Thus parents' work complements that parents can provide of teachers - and children receive the benefit of a partnership between what are, after all, the most important adults in their lives.
By involving parents in this kind of wholesale way, the school is able to provide a natural meeting-place. Parents themselves can then develop, possibly with the aid of teachers, many different activities from which their children will eventually gain advantage. For example, in an inner-city school with a large proportion of non-English-speaking parents, teachers and parents have organized English language classes.
This teacher asked parents to take most of the responsibility for teaching the sight vocabulary, while he himself taught the spelling patterns. Parents were given advice and materials to provide and play reading games with their children. This method worked extremely well. It was noticeable, though, that parents can provide where parents did not attend the supporting reading-workshop session, much less progress was made. This reinforces our view that parents can provide regular contact between parents and teachers is essential if a PACT scheme is to flourish.
|
|
|
|
