The child is contented to be the richest human resource of our country. As affirmed by Dr. Jose Rizal, he is the hope of our Motherland. It means that he is the future manpower for nation building. Due to the significant role of the child in the progress of our country, it is desired that he should be brought up maximally so that he will be an asset to the society.
He home is that cradle of personality development. It is the home that carries an enormous task in facilitating the physical, intellectual, moral, emotional, and spiritual upbringing of the child. It is here that the teaching – learning process begins. The parents are the teachers. They provide the child with an array of early experiences and circumstances wherein he develops his knowledge, habits, skills,, abilities, attitudes, and values in life which are the bases of his personality.
Since parents play the first and most decisive role in making the child an effective force in the advancement of a better Philippines, there of extending assistance or guidance to them. They need preparation for their jobs as parents. It is a fact that not all parents are capable of shaping alone the destiny of their child. There are those with little or no education at all. They cannot do much in helping their child. They need to improve their skills on parenting. In other words, they need the complementary and supplementary efforts of their fellowmen in the total development of their child. Who is the most capable person to assist the parents?
The teacher is the most important ingredients in the educational success of the child in school. Her influence can be unlimited. Her ideas may affect thousands. As a facilitator of learning, she is the right person parents can approach for assistance in the education of their child.
The teacher can be supportive to the home in a wide and diversified range of social contacts, involvements, and experiences. This can be attested by DP No. 603, The Child and Youth Welfare Code. This Code contains provisions with respect to the responsibilities of the home and the school in promoting the well-being of the child and in enhancing his opportunities to be productive in life. It further provides that the school should assist the home in providing the child with the best education.
It is on this premise that the teacher has a critical role to play in the shared responsibility of parenting the child. What is parenting? It is the process of assisting or guiding the child to maximize his potentialities. The supportive role of a teacher is further strengthened by Section 581 of the Service Manual which that the teacher stands in “loco parentis” in the care of the child. She is the child’s surrogate parent when in school and should therefore be viewed as a partner in the rearing of the child.
In sum, the parent and the teacher are the primary persons who know the child best in school and at home. The role they play in the total development of the child is indispensable. Together and separately, they provide him with all the opportunities to learn relevant and useful knowledge, skills, and all the incentives he needs to lead happy and useful life. They cooperatively pool their concerted efforts for the welfare of the child.
Teachers are encouraged to conduct assessment on the needs of parents. They should know the needs of individual parents because different parents need different assistance. The training of parents on skills is one way of establishing a harmonious relationship between teachers and parent and between parent and the child. Confucius stated that if he parent –child relationship is wholesome and good, every other relation will come right as a matter of course.
There are many opportunities for parents and teachers to meet. School activities like PCTA meetings, community assemblies, garden days, card-giving days, parent-teacher conferences, school celebrations, children’s festivals, parent school visits, teacher home visits, parent education programs, etc. provide the best time for them to have a heart to heart talk concerning the child. Through these activities, a strengthened partnership of the home and the school will surely produce a productive, self-reliant, and socially adjusted individual.
By: Celia I. Sarmiento | Lamao Elementary School | Limay, Bataan
