RES GESTAE
We deserve our children
In political parlance, it is said “we get the government we deserve”. With child-rearing, it can be put, “we get the children we truly deserve”.
This realization came after I attended the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) for our “scholar”. It was the first time I “officially” played my role as guardian.
I have to come early for the meeting. It was out of the conviction that time is gold and because I had still two other meetings to attend to that day.
The meeting was set at 3:00 in the afternoon. I arrived 15 minutes ahead. The meeting was called to order at 3:45.
The meeting should have 45 parents in attendance but only five of us were present. After the advisory teacher explained the rationale of the meeting, an election of officers should have followed. But with our number, the teacher simply exercised her “appointing” authority and accorded us with positions that her instinct told her suited us best.
I became president of the classroom PTA by virtue of necessity, if not due to passivity of most parents to take their responsibility as guardians to their children.
As I was told, same thing happened in other classrooms. And it made the scenario even worse.
What struck me deeply in that situation was not how easily got the position (and responsibility) but how most parents took for granted their duty to take part in the education (and formation) of their children.
PTA meeting is called not so often. It may be held once in two months or with worst possibility, once in a year.
But PTA meeting is vital in getting first-hand information on how our children, our students perform, behave, and do in school. The information is not limited to how well or bad our children, students are in academics. Teachers, especially the keen observers, can tell us – parents, guardians–more than just about our children’s, students’ academic performance. They can tell how our children, students brave or yield in the peer-pressure that may affect their identity awareness. They can give feedback on how our children, students deal with the complexities of their school environment – their attitude towards the authority, how they participate or isolate in group activities, their leadership or followership skills and potentials, their many facets of development.
Unfortunately, to say that most parents don’t understand this role is an understatement. Many parents are simply negligent of the fact that sending their children to school is not enough compliance to their duty of giving their children good education. And many parents are still unmindful of the fact that whatever their children will become, they are not only part of it; they have full responsibility to it.
This is why I contend that we can only have the children we truly deserve. It is so because we can only reap what we sow.