The workshops in Calheta and the parent involvement ...

Mothers of the newcoming children enrolled in the workshops sitting at Sillibel's patio watching their children (Left) as they colour mandalas (Right)

We all know how parent involvement is important and how much it pays off in other significant ways regarding the children's education.

Mothers around here do want to get involved in their children's education, and I say mothers, because most families are single parent ones ... but one of the problems is that most of them are fairly young and have difficulties to understand what is really wanted from them as parents, as all they have ever heard of is work as a source of financial support and not much more than that ...

Academic achievement is something they expect their children to have, as if it were a hidden dream of theirs, that never came true regarding themselves ... but because they force their way through life, in order to (sometimes) barely survive ... they feel to "help" their children learn and further develop themselves implies using force ... which again is not much different from the methodology used by most teachers I have talked to.

 

 Neuza's mother, a young mother of 10 children (Left) and Tarine's mother (Right)

Dedicating some time to increasing the awareness of these mothers by emphasising the importance of them being the "backbone" of their children's school development, by encoraging them, not to help the children when they have homework to do, as that would be asking them to do something most of them cannot do, but at least understand how important it is for them to allow children some time for school related activities, even if they do not immediately understand the benefit ... by letting them see what their children are capable of doing, rather than just focussing on pass/fail marks they cannot understand.

As some of them watch their children while painting or once they see what they have actually painted, one gets the feeling they would like to be given the chance their children are being given now ... and the more I think about it the more I would like to design a workshop in which I would have them involved, not simply as mothers of these children but as "children" themselves ... the children some of them have certainly not have had the time to be ...

Nate, mother of seven (Left) is the example of an "interested" mother, whose children (Leinira and Cesaltina) have attended every possible workshop related to their age. Mothers of the children (Right) who attended the last workshop at the closing ceremony, in which I must proudly say 4 fathers were present.