School & Family Magazine Newstand Arlington Nov/Dec 2017 | Page 10

Engaged Parents, Successful Students
By Kenneth Perkins
Junior high student Susan has homework.
It’s due the next day. She knows it. Mom
knows it. But by 9 p.m., Susan has visited
with friends, watched a little television and
played around on her iPhone.
She’s done everything but the homework
assigned to her. What, as a parent, do
you do?
A) Push her to do it.
B) Swoop in and do it yourself
C) Ignore the whole thing
These are questions parents of school-age
children grapple with constantly, which
is why this scenario and others like it
are presented early on in an hour-long
workshop for AISD parents courtesy of the parent and community engagement department.
AISD campuses have the opportunity to schedule parent workshops based on a variety of topics throughout
the year through the parent and community engagement department. A list of workshops and events can be
found on the family events calendar on the parent and community engagement website at www.aisd.net/pace.
At a recent workshop at Nichols Junior High, facilitator Myra McGlothen-Sutton had fun with the
homework pop quiz but still showed the seriousness of how to handle students who are trying to find their
way academically and socially.
“There’s a name for the parents who swoop in and catch their kids so they won’t fall,” McGlothen-Sutton
says. “They’re called helicopter parents. Unfortunately, at this stage of a child’s academic career, they need
to be learning how to study on their own and have academic discipline. They can’t develop that if you’re
constantly coming in to save them.”
The workshop, titled “Step Back, Not Out,” is tailor-made for junior high parents because this is a time
when students are no longer being as closely guided by teachers and staff. They are being positioned to head
into high school, where there is even less hand-holding.
At the Nichols workshop, McGlothen-Sutton went through a variety of scenarios by using role play
and digging into specific situations to point out how to walk the line between being engaged and being
overbearing.
“Being engaged with the child, at home and in school as a volunteer, helps with their attendance, academics,
attitude and behavior,” McGlothen-Sutton said. “At this stage, they need you and don’t need you, so you
have to find where the line is drawn.”
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Arlington School & Family