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Home › Articles › Back to School Headquarters › Class Act Dad

Class Act Dad

Getting Involved with Your Child's School

By Teri Brown

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Fathers, because of their busy work schedule, often have a tendency to connect with their children through fun events such as taking them to a ball game, fishing or even out to eat. It's fun, and it's less work. But in reality, the impact on your child's happiness and education depends more on the very thing that school involvement brings: knowing your child and being a part of their everyday lives. A child, like any person, wants to share their life with the people they love.

"Dads have the same agenda as moms," O'Briann says. "To have healthy, well-rounded, well-liked kids. Their children are more likely to turn out that way when they are surrounded by people who are involved in shaping their personalities."

O'Brian believes that in order for dads to have a positive impact on their children's education, they need to get involved early on and think outside the box. If their job doesn't permit them to come into the classroom regularly, they may be needed as a room parent who makes phone calls for no-school days or class events. The point is to be involved and let their child know why. "Once you are known to the school community as a parent who is involved, that translates to good feelings about your family, and in turn, your child," O'Brian says. "It may be as simple as offering to collate papers for the weekly parent handouts, but you'll be seen as a helpful resource."

5 Tips to Help You Get Involved

The following tips, courtesy of Rob Goldblatt, psychologist and author of the book, The Boy Who Didn't Want to Be Sad (American Psychological Association's Magination Press, 2004), will give you ideas on how fathers can help out in their children's school and make a long lasting investment in their children's education – no matter what the age of your child!

  1. Drive on field trips. These are great. They don't require an ongoing commitment, and they give your kid a chance to show off their dad.
  2. Read to the class. You are the guest celebrity, which gives your kid a lot of attention and status from his/her peers and teacher.
  3. Teach the class something you are expert in. Pick something kids think is cool and teachers think is relevant to what they are studying. Teachers love the break, and your kid is elevated in the eyes of others, especially if their friends think you're cool.
  4. Be a teacher's assistant in the classroom. Sounds boring, but it is amazing and incredibly bonding. You become the invisible man. As you do mundane administrative work for the teacher, you are the proverbial fly on the wall. You get to see what your kid is really like as a classroom observer. You see how they handle the person teasing them, the hard assignment in class, the classroom discussion, friendships and hardships. You have the opportunity to quietly coach your child with a whispered word or two at just the moment they are struggling the most socially or academically.
  5. Take the time no matter how busy you are. Too many men believe that if they work hard their kids will appreciate and love them for their noble self-sacrifice. Wrong! Doesn't work that way. Kids love who they know. When you stay at the office instead of the classroom, it is not a noble sacrifice, because it is your children – not yourself – you are sacrificing. Get in your kids' lives now in the small day-to-day moments. Get out of your office and go to theirs. Go to school.


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