Introduction
When parents are actively involved in a child's learning process, the entire setup of their education experience changes. There's a significant difference between wanting to be part of a child's education and being involved in the day-to-day process. Understanding this distinction is essential, especially for parents who are trying to navigate alternative approaches to education that go beyond traditional schooling.
The Mainstream Schooling Structure
Mainstream schooling has been the norm for decades. It follows a structured system with clear boundaries and expectations for both students and parents.
"There is a timetable, a schedule which students there need to follow. They would come back and help themselves with whatever subject, and students have to get on to the tuition and that's it."
This structured setup allows parents to continue their professional lives, with the school taking care of all academic needs. The focus is purely on academics, and there is little interaction required between parents and the school's educational process.
Parenting in a Mainstream Setup
In mainstream schooling, the role of the parent is often minimal.
"Parents can continue to live their professional life, and these days, it's crazy, 14 hours working, they would not have the time in the day to spend with the children."
This system allows parents to function on autopilot, as the academic needs of the child are taken care of by the school. The structured framework ensures that parents do not need to actively engage in the learning process, except during holidays or weekends. And that is all to it. The child is considered as a ‘product’ that can be ‘templatized’.
Moving Away from Mainstream Education
However, when moving away from the traditional system into more alternative approaches, the framework changes. Education here involves more than just academics.
"If you want to include the whole of life in the whole education process, then everything becomes an integral part of growing up of a child."
Alternative systems demand that parents shift from a passive role to an active one. The scope of education expands to include life skills, personality development, and emotional well-being and in the integral education context, goes deeper into what one truly is, one’s true self, the psychic being.
"Because the scope of education in this kind of a setup includes the whole of life."
The Role of Parents in Integral Education
In an integral school, parents are the biggest stakeholders. The child spends only a portion of their time in school, and the rest at home.
"Rest of the 18, 17, whatever hours are spent at home."‘Contradiction in home and school environment’
"If a child ends up growing in contrary cultures, one at a place like ours and different at home, then rest assured the child would grow up as a thoroughly, profoundly confused adult."
Authenticity and the child's autonomous personality will be lost if parents do not align their parenting style with the values being lived in an integral education setup.
"Somewhere the authenticity will be lost. The autonomous personality that we are trying to create out of a child will be gone."
Parenting in this context becomes a choice, not just a role.
"Parenthood comes naturally, but parenting is a matter of choice."
Parents will have to initiate a process within themselves, a process of going within themselves, unravelling their conditioning, going deeper into learning processes and asking questions about life. Parents can provide an environment where the focus is on asking questions rather than giving away readymade, conditioned, unexamined answers. All this will require a deeper in-look into the kinds of roles that we play and ideally, do away with roles.
Conclusion
This blog explores the critical role that parents play in shaping their child's education, particularly when moving away from a mainstream setup to an alternative learning system that encompasses whole-life education.