As a teacher, I have noticed that the amount of parental involvement for many children seems to diminish as the child progresses in school. Why is this? I am not a parent, which may be why I don’t understand this.
I have a couple of theories (really they’re just guesses) on why this may be true. One, I believe that some parents are so tired of dealing with the hormonal changes in their teenage children, that they try to distance themselves from any issues that their children may have in school. Two, may be a little more comman and truthful is that there may be younger children in school who are commanding the parental involvement, that had originally been given to the other child.
Whether my ideas are valid or not, I don’t know. I do see the diminishing parental involvement among some children as a reality. And I am not just talking about voluntary involvement. I am also talking about the times that a teacher tries to contact the parent(s) and get no answer or reply. This makes communication between the teachers and the parents difficult. The teachers become jaded toward trying to call and contact the parents. Then the parents get mad when they are not informed of problems. It is one of those vicious cycles.
I am the parent of 3 children-I have had children in some level of school for 25 years and now I also have grandchildren in school so I guess I am qualified to give at least my opinion. It seems to me that when children are in elementary grades that the teachers and the children want more parental involvement-then later, the teenage years kick in. I tried to keep in touch with our high school teachers and have our lines of communication open-however we had a very small community and most of the teachers, kids and parents knew each other so everyone was available to one another if problems arose. I guess by the time your children reach high school age, you hope that you have taught them right from wrong and that actions (good or bad) have consequences. They have to learn to take responsibility for themselves-that said I was still asking my high school seniors if they had homework!!! I guess as a parent I still wanted to help my child succeed in school and in life-I guess, once a parent , always a parent. jmho