PARENTS ARE BABY’S FIRST TEACHERS

“How About Better Parents?” by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, 11/19/11.

Thomas L. Friedman, three time Pulitzer Prize winning author for The New York Times, recently published an opinion article on the subject of parenting.  In recent times we hear and read so much about the need for better teachers, Friedman begins, but new studies show “parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.”  The op-ed article, “How about better parents,” discusses how current research indicates that students who perform better in school do so because of parent involvement at home.

“How do we know?,” Friedman asks.   “Every three years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., conducts exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in the world’s leading industrialized nations on their reading comprehension and ability to use what they’ve learned in math and science to solve real problems — the most important skills for succeeding in college and life.”  Compared with students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai, America’s 15-year-olds have not been performing as well in the PISA exams.

A PISA research team was formed to better understand why some students thrive taking the PISA tests and others do not.  A study was conducted with 5,000 parents spanning 18 industrialized countries.  Encouraged to look beyond the classroom, researchers asked parents about how they raised their kids and then compared that with test results.  One of the main findings of this research revealed the parent who read to their child early on improved the school performance of their child more so than the parent who just played with the child, regardless of socioeconomic background.  Friedman’s point is that parents more involved at home make the teacher more effective and results in improved learning.

We embrace this philosophy with Stellar Caterpillar lessons.  From the first days of the infant’s life, parents learn to guide their baby at home in a way that improves motor skill.  Parents become the babies’ first teachers through gentle and consistent movements at home.  In time, baby emerges coordinated, confident, and strong!