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Parents: the Latino secret weapon in education

by Jen M.D. Matos

When I was a little girl, my mother looked me straight in the eye and said “Jennifer, you’re going to school until you have gray hair!”  I remember thinking “Wow. I am going to be old—at least 40 years old by the time I completed school. 

This decree from my mother was one early indicator that mom deeply valued education. However, mom didn’t just say she valued education, she showed me. Every night, before she started her 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at the hospital, she would check my homework for neatness and completion and perform a “surprise inspection” of my book bag. If I didn’t finish a math problem, that problem would greet me at breakfast.

When the nuns at school sent home letters to parents asking permission to “paddle” us if we got out of hand, my mom signed up right away. Was she trying to kill me? At the time, I thought that this woman must want me dead. After doing some research for my graduate program, I learned that my mother, like so many other Puerto Rican mothers, was determined to provide me with the best education possible.

In her article, What Happens if Juan Cannot Read, Maitri Pamo offered the bleak statistics on Latinos in education. On May 13, I became a different kind of statistic—I earned my doctorate. What I learned from my dissertation research on Latino parents offered me a counter narrative to what is said about Latino parents, Latinos, and education. While the dominant story in this country is that we, Latinos, don’t value education, the opposite is true. “Successful” Latino students credit parental involvement for their academic success citing strategies like checking homework, checking book bags (Antrop-González et al., 2005), and teaching the importance of respeto (Reese et al., 1995).

Latino parental involvement may not be all about cupcake sales and PTA meetings because Latino parental involvement looks differently than it does for some White parents (Ascher, 1988). Since the Latino voice is silenced and marginalized in this country, and since our culture is stereotyped but not deeply understood, what Latinos offer as parental involvement is rendered invisible. The construct of parental involvement was intended for White, middle to upper-class parents (Berger, 1991). However, if you noticed, Latinos don’t identify as White, and the over 90-year old construction of parental involvement needs to be updated.

Parental involvement is an antiquated construction that needs to be revamped.  The number of Latinos is vastly increasing in the United States. Teachers, schools and administrators can prepare for the influx of Latino students by incorporating the advice of some experts—Latino parents, themselves.

Sources

Antrop-Gonzalez, R., Velez, W., & Garrett, T. (2005). Donde estan los estudiantes Puertorriquenos/os exitosos? [Where are the academically successful Puerto Rican students?]: Success factors of high-achieving Puerto Rican high school students. Journal of Latinos & Education, 4(2), 77-94.

Ascher, C. (1988). Improving the school-home connection for poor and minority urban students. Urban Review, 20(2), 109-123.

Berger, E. H. (1991). Parent involvement: Yesterday and today. The Elementary School Journal, 91(3), 209-219.

Reese, L., Balzano, S. Gallimore, R., & Goldenberg, C. (1995). The concept of educación: Latino family values and American schooling. International Journal of Educational Research, 23, 57-81.

To learn more about Jen, visit Revolutionary Rican.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

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Posted on May 24, 2011 at 8:00 am in Education   |  RSS feed

9 Responses to “Parents: the Latino secret weapon in education”

    
  1. Julito Varela
    May 24, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Good post, but I don’t know if I agree with this, having been in education for over 20 years. This is not a question of White parental involvement vs Latino parental involvement, and the cultural differences, which you suggest, but instead it is more about the challenges school face to actually bring Latino parents into the fold and have them become key contributors to their children’s and school’s success. Last week I was blessed to be with some of the top Latino superintendents in the country and their practices to create “educated consumers” has reached very good results in helping Latino students improve. This is not about Latino parents, I would argue that it is about an educational system that is no longer relevant to our society and one that must be transformed and reformed. All for public education (don’t get me started on privatization of public schools). It’s time to start looking as Latino parents as parents, just like any other group. I don’t think generalizations about Latino parents is a good way to approach this. Just my opinion. Thanks for the post!

  2. Nancy Sepulveda
    May 24, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Good post, and thanks for re-affirming what I have always found to be the accurate ‘Latino-parent-narrative” of placing high value on education. In fact it actually wasn’t until I came across some BL articles that I realized there was an alternative stereotype out there (that of Latino parents NOT valuing education for their children.)

    I would actually suggest a marriage of the two parental involvement models you describe as ultimately the best approach. I’m a Latina mom, and I SO do the backpack checks (LOL! Glad I’m not alone!) but I also bake (slash buy) the bakesale cupcakes. Like it or not, schools definitely have their politics, and establishing yourself as an involved, informed parent by having a presence at those events/fundraisers that the school places value on, is a good way of ensuring that your kid gets the attention he/she needs in and out of the classroom. When schools know the parent is “watching” them they tread much more carefully and are more on-the-ball. Not saying I agree with it, but it’s what I have personally seen. So, be involved behind the scenes, but make your presence as a supportive parent known to the administration as well.

  3. Jean Rockford
    May 24, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Hey Jen,

    I’m also a Latino doctoral student doing research on the telling of counterstories of Latinos in education. I’m most moved by Anzaldua’s ideas of the crossing of cultural borderlands, to counter the essentialization of one particular culture, as the person above posted. I’d love it if we could talk! email me at msrockford@gmail.com.

  4. Angelica Perez
    May 25, 2011 at 9:28 am

    Jen, I agree that educational involvement is not about cupcakes or attending PTA meetings. This is not how “educational involvement” should be defined for ANY group of parents. While it is great to check your children’s backpack and their homework notebooks, this is barely enough for a child’s educational success.

    Ironically, being truly involved in your child’s education is about being involved “outside” of your child’s school. Fostering educational success means linking your children to educational, cultural and intellectual opportunities outside of the school. This may or may not include your children seeing you read at home, and encouraging a love/passion for reading and intellectual curiosity. It is about introducing your children to musical instruments, sports, hobbies, museums, different cultures, and most importantly, showing your children what an education can give them.

    Another very essential part of being involved in your children’s education is learning and teaching your children how to navigate educational success at school. We need to learn how the game of success at school is played. For a high school student parent, this involves understanding the importance of a rigorous academic transcript, which would include AP courses, honors courses and the more challenging classes the school has to offer. Yes, many schools may not have these academic resources, and that is unfortunate, but if we wait until the school district has enough funding to institute these courses, it will just be too late for your child. With all the digital resources online, children can take free AP courses, college courses online — that’s always a possibility.

    Suddenly, Univision and other companies have surfaced as desiring to help build a “college culture” among Latinos. I applaud their efforts in bringing information and education to Latino families. However, what they fail to realize is that there is a formula to getting into college, especially selective colleges. We need to demystify that information and use concrete tools and resources to help parents understand what exactly it is that they (and their children) need to do, from day 1, to foster educational success and prepare their children for college admissions.

  5. Ana
    May 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    You have wonderful observations in your blog that I had never thought about! A Latino parent often helps as best they know how, and sometime in the students eyes there is a difference between how White parents get involved in their education and their own. I blog about similar issues, you should check it out- analatinosincollege.blogspot.com

  6. Jovita
    May 29, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    I agree with you that Latino parent involvement does not need to look like White parent involvement and can be just as effective, if not more so. However, in your article you rely very heavily on your own experience to support your theory. You mention that you have a doctorate and are studying the issue. The article would be more effective if you used details of your academic research to support your claims. I enjoyed reading your personal story, but it only illustrates your argument. It cannot be used to defend it.

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