Parental involvement is one of the key elements to a child’s success in school – maybe the key element – speakers said Saturday at the seventh annual convention of the U.S.V.I. Parent, Teachers, Students association.
Every survey shows that the more parents are involved in their children’s schooling, the better the child is likely to do, said the convention’s keynote speaker, PTA National President Charles Saylors. For parents wondering how to help their children do better at school, the answer is simple: Get involved. But far too few do so, he added.
Saturday’s gathering at the Divi Carina was a case in point. About two thirds of the people attending the all-day session were parents of school children, which is a good percentage, but the total number of people who registered to learn how to improve local schools was only about 60, which meant only about 40 parents took part.
"We have not convinced the majority of parents that they are an important cog in their children’s educational wheel," said Winona Hendrcks, chair of the V.I. Board of Education.
Hendricks said too many parents stay away from school because they are intimidated by the process or because they feel embarrassed about their own educational limitations. But parents have more than a right to be involved in the school process, she said. They owe it to their children.
"A life without education is a condemnation of children to a life of poverty, of mediocrity," she said.
Saylors said that when he was growing up, men went off to work during the day and mothers stayed home, putting the moms in charge of school issues. Even today, when both parents work in most two-parent households, the idea still lives that women are in charge of the children’s education and men aren’t much involved.
Saylors pointed to his own organization as an example. The national PTA was formed in 1897, and Saylors is the first man ever to head the group. The PTA has five million members nationwide, but only eight percent of them are men.
"You can see the opportunity we’ve got to get more people engaged," Saylors said.
In a busy world most people say they just don’t have tie to volunteer more. The PTA answered with a program called "3 for Me," which asks each parent of a school child to volunteer three hours sometime during the course of the school year. He pointed out that if a parent goes to a movie, the time spent driving to the theater, watching the film and driving home would probably be about three hours. And once a parent has given those three hours, they almost always end up volunteering more, Saylors said.
The trick is making those experiences positive, he said, recognizing that time is one of the most precious resources people have and they don’t want to waste it.
Saylors cited another survey that showed a major reason more men aren’t involved
"They said no one asked them," Saylors said. "That’s 100 percent correctable."
Saylors challenged each person at the convention to go out and recruit new members to their PTA and to
"We’ve got to get creative in getting them in the door," he said.
