Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

When I think of education, it involves the parent, family and the community.  All must be involved in order for education to be effective.  Reviewing the Parent and Family Stories, I found myself feeling connected to them.  We all want our children to be successful in society and that is what these families are stating.  One specific conversation stood out to me and it was the gentleman that spoke of spending time with our children now and to not wait until later.  Our children need us now more than ever and modeling for them the way to respond to challenges in life is important. 

As a parent and educator, I can relate to every parent that spoke on media segment.  I want the best for my two children and for every child I come in contact with in my community.  I did not use the Head Start program in my community, but I used a private preschool program that used a similar curriculum to prepare my two for their educational journey.  I insure everyday that my two are ready for school by insuring them both by telling them how proud I am of them and telling them both that they need to do their best each day.  As an educator I am very involved with my families and community.  Promoting in my community the program we offer is the number one way I get them to engage in their child’s future.  Using experiences I have had personal and professionally have also assisted with getting the community engaged in our program.

Parent/family involvement is an essential system element for all strands of service in the early childhood field.  Our program can only be as successful as the families want it to be.  I truly believe that in order for our programs to get funding, our families have advocated alongside of the educators.  Having them in our corner assists with politicians pushing for funding, research, more educators, etc.  Some of our best advocators for EC programs have been parents of children experiencing or have experienced challenges within early childhood education programs.  Education will always be a topic on the table for our communities.  We will forever move forward with improvements to insure our children the best of education for their future.  Our families, parents, and community will only make that a stronger foundation for our children.