I’ve come back to a topic I’ve written about before on a couple of occasions: Parents as Teachers http://www.marsharwest.com/pat-30th-anniversary-thoughts-on-thursday/ and http://www.marsharwest.com/thoughts-on-thursday-school-begins-part-2/ It’s a topic about which I’m passionate. My background before becoming a writer is as a mom, an activist PTA Member, a school board member, high school teacher, and elementary school principal. I’ve spent more years of my life in a school setting than out. (Odd that I have these cards from school board an admin days. Couldn’t quickly find the teacher & PTA ones, which I’m sure are somewhere. Image may be NSFW.
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) Image may be NSFW.
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As a problem solver, I generally look at a situation and say, “How can we make this work better?” I’ll be the first to admit this can be an annoying tendency. Not everyone wants to be second guessed and Monday morning quarter backed the way I do. But I believe that with education, most everything can be made better. I believe people mean well, they just don’t always understand how to make something better. I certainly believe most parents are well meaning, doing the best they can based on the information and experience they’ve acquired.
No one requires we get a license before we become parents. I mean we have to have a license to do almost everything else. Not just doctors and lawyers, but plumbers, electricians, teachers, beauticians, massage therapists, to fish, hunt, drive a car, be a food handler. The list is endless. But we don’t live in a Utopian world, and we aren’t required to take training or obtain a license before we become parents–the most important job we ever hold! Nowadays, people can at least go online to ask for help. But you have to be aware that you have a problem to know to seek help in the first place.
My association with Parents as Teachers traces to September 1987 when my good friend Julie Miers was hired as the FWISD’s first Parent Educator. Fort Worth, Allen, and Garland ISD piloted the program. In May of 1988, I was elected to the board of FWISD, and thus began my indoctrination in the importance of early childhood education.
Remember I said at the beginning I looked at problems and tried to figure out how to fix them. If the problem is kids not performing well in high school, becoming a teen parent, dropping out then where do you go to fix that? At the high school level? No, it’s too late. At middle school? No, too late then too. Well, surely elementary school will do the trick. No, unfortunately, that’s in many cases also too late.
So can we not make a dent in how successful kids can be in school, and in their jobs, and when they become parents? Do we just throw up our hands and scream “I give up!”
Image may be NSFW.
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No. With all the brain research in the last 30 or so years, we’ve learned how important the early years of a baby’s life are. Those first two years are vital. Gosh, they’re not even coming to school yet. What can schools do? They can institute a Parents as Teachers program to work with parents who have kids 0-4. And not just schools, but child care agencies can access these programs, too.
Monday, I drove down to Austin to participate in the Texas PAT Advisory Board meeting which took place at the time of the Summit. Usually we do conference calls, so this was fun to see face to face the folks who give their time. We have a retired professor from Texas Tech, a retired Austin ISD high school principal, a current PAT program coordinator, a business consultant who sees the problem from the hiring perspective, someone with the Texas Juvenile Justice system, a woman who’s been involved with Mental Health America of Texas in Dallas and Austin for many years. As the director of the first child care center housed in a corporation for the children of the staff, she incorporated PAT in that center. And me with my many hatted background. All of us are passionate about a program that has the potential to make such a difference in the lives of families, kids, school, and our society as a whole.
My friend Julie was recognized for her years of work with PAT. I was glad to be there to share that with her.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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(From left: Dr. Kathy Nathan, Chair of the State Advisory Board, Moi, Julie, Elaine Shiver, Director, Texas PAT ) We recognized her assistant, Mayra Bennington, who has worked in the state office since the beginning. Those are her flowers in that gorgeous vase. Mayra is invaluable, but camera shy. :).
Thankfully, more and more folks are climbing on the bandwagon, which recognizes the virtue of early intervention and supportive home visitations. There are other home visitation programs, but I’ve been privileged to be associated with Parents as Teachers for many years and to see the fruits of the labors of many educators. The ripple effect of this program is immeasurable. Because it’s not just the individual kid who’s impacted, but everyone those children come in contact with through the rest of their lives. Each is a better person and that beams out not just to their world, but helps make for a better world for us all. America succeeds on the back of the success of it’s public schools. Schools succeed more easily with informed, educated parents, who send prepared kids to schools. Parents, who began an early association with the school, tend to keep that relationship strong.
Image may be NSFW.
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(Julie and me with from left: Northwest ISD program director Deann Poarch Colley, Nat’l PAT staff member Karen Guskin, and two FW PAT staff members Yolanda Munson, and Murlene Barber)
So yes my Thoughts on Thursday post has me once again climbing on my soap box. Please don’t take this post as anti private school. My grandson will begin private school in the fall. But public ed. is what’s in my background. Bottom line, each parent has to do what is best for her child. I’m passionate about PAT. What about you? What stirs your passions and causes you to step up on your soap box?