Children aren’t the only ones frustrated by school. Many parents are faced with changing curriculums that read like foreign languages.
Most parents want to grab every advantage for their children in this increasingly competitive world. But while many agree that being involved in their kids’ education is important, it’s not as simple as ABC.
Many Lake County parents are keeping pace with their children’s education by going back to school. Others are openly challenging what seem to be non-stop changes in school curriculums. And educators are trying to answer parents’ concerns to strengthen the bond between parents and schools.
What’s at stake in this educational merry-go-round may be every child’s future academic success. Studies from 1990 through 1992 compiled by the Institute for Educational Research, a Glen Ellyn-based cooperative of school districts throughout the nation, confirm what has long been suspected: One of the most important factors in a child’s ability to learn is parental involvement.
“Parents are their child’s main teacher for the first five years of their life,” said Jeanne Mattick, a director of personnel at Community Consolidated School District 21 in Wheeling and creator of an educational video that aids parents in teaching their preschool children. “The influence on their learning habits is incredible,” said Mattick, a public schools educator for 25 years.
And it’s only natural that parents who are involved in teaching their preschool children will continue to be involved in their children’s education once the kids enter school.
Administrators in North Shore District 112 in Highland Park, created in 1992 when three others merged, understands this dynamic. In the last year, the district has offered numerous parent courses including math and computer to help keep families informed about their children’s education.
Eighty-two parents recently attended workshops on the latest computer technology being taught to their children, said Deborah Danziger, who organizes the district’s computer programs.
“Parents sought out these classes because for years we approached the computer (teacher) at school to get answers to computer questions,” said Highland Park parent Alison Salzman.
Forming workable partnerships between parents and educators in the existing reform environment is not always easy.
“Curriculum change is very complex and very experimental,” said Elliot Eisner, an education professor at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., who has served on many national curriculum committees.
Eisner noted the most important factor is that everyone-from student to parent to teacher-has to be talking about the same thing.
At the same time, he said, it is the responsibility of each elementary school’s administrators to tell parents what teachers are teaching and how they’re doing it.
Also, “the parents have an (equal) responsibility to get involved in their child’s education,” Eisner said.
What educators often find is that parents are frustrated by material unfamiliar to them. Other parents complain that they’re not receiving any guidance from their schools on how to instruct their children, even if the materials themselves are decipherable.
Reina Giamo of Lake Zurich is one parent who finds the lack of parental education frustrating. “When my (1st grader) comes home with math, English, reading or social studies questions, I need to know how to relate to him at his level of learning. No one is teaching me that,” said Giamo, whose son is in Lake Zurich Community Unit District 95.
Giamo faced the added concern that her son wasn’t being challenged enough by the course work and sought out experts in other school districts for help. Now she acts as her child’s second teacher, helping him to identify new words and striving to help him reach his highest academic potential through additional home activities.
Michael Brazeau, a parent of 1st and 5th graders in District 95, also believes that providing parents with more guided instruction would solve some of the problems. Brazeau said the district needs to do a better job of informing parents about how they can aid their child’s education at home.
District 95 Supt. Edward Cox said his staff has been offering numerous educational seminars to inform parents about curriculum changes. Each school invites parents to regular meetings to discuss such issues as well, he said. In addition, Cox said, there are district-wide curriculum meetings held to discuss any concerns parents might have.
“We’ve come a long way in communicating matters to parents. But there’s always more to be done,” he said.
Cox added that parents will receive a five-year plan next year outlining what their children will be taught. In addition, parent newsletters will be sent home with suggestions on how children’s education can be enhanced at home.
School officials like Cox say they want to help more parents cope with all the changes and continue the school-home connection. Yet they urge patience in learning the new curriculums being introduced to children.
“Curriculum reform takes time to understand, not only for the parent and child but for educators as well,” pointed out Walter Friker, assistant superintendent for instruction at Kildeer Elementary School District 96.
Much of the curriculum change in the suburbs is similar to what has been going on in District 96. The district reformed its reading and writing programs over the last several years and implemented what educators call “whole language curriculum.” This approach integrates listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking skills to help teach reading and writing.
Other significant curriculum changes that are being introduced to area schools include math and science reform programs offering hands-on learning activities that relate to real-life experiences.
But no one said change would be easy. Parent Salzman found some difficulty in helping her child grasp math because her child was already in 5th grade when it was introduced to all grade levels.
She credits the special efforts to educate-by district officials-as helping her and her child get through the tough transitional period successfully.
“My school explained the math over several nights. They also put together a dictionary of words so we could understand the terms our children were using. That’s all we needed,” Salzman said.
On the other hand, some parents remain skeptical and are increasingly questioning educators and their admittedly well-intentioned reform methods.
One particularly controversial reform that has disconcerted many parents involves the old method of learning phonics, that is, sounding out each segment of a word like the “th” in Thanksgiving. Learning to read via phonics has been de-emphasized, and one of the first entrants on the “out” list in many schools were the “Dick and Jane” books. Those familiar standbys were replaced with other more popular award-winning literature.
Another area of debate is the new “inventive” spelling concept. Parents whose children attend Oak Terrace School in Highwood have questioned inventive spelling, which encourages children to write without worrying about whether they are spelling words correctly; rather, they write them down the way they sound.
“Parents see the progress in their children and that they enjoy writing more, so they accept and then understand the change,” said Teta Minuzzo, a 1st-grade teacher at District 112’s Oak Terrace School. Children are still taught spelling, but correct spelling is not emphasized at every step along the way, Minuzzo said.
