The role of the family in the educational process is pivotal and cannot be overlooked, ignored, bypassed, or replaced. Schools alone cannot advance the educational process; there must be a partnership with the family to achieve the desired goals and educational outcomes. The family represents the first nurturing environment in a child’s life, and its stability is the golden key to the smooth operation of the entire educational process.
The roles played by the family in supporting the educational process are diverse, including both material and psychological aspects. Each role fulfills essential needs that cannot be ignored, and the extent to which the family succeeds in meeting these needs determines the achievement of educational goals and outcomes.
The family's material investment in the educational process is highly profitable because it is an investment in human capital. This involves developing children through high-quality education by selecting more distinguished schools with cooperative management, high communication skills, real efforts in academic education, low classroom density, and activities to sharpen students' skills, among other features that distinguish educational institutions.
The family's material investment in the educational process is highly profitable because it is an investment in human capital.
Material investment in education should be within the family's actual capacity without creating undue stress. Excessive financial pressure to enroll children in high-quality schools might compromise the available time to follow up with them, communicate, and listen to them. This pressure can lead to stress that may escalate to family violence, resulting in outcomes contrary to the intended goals. In such cases, prestigious schools become merely a form of social prestige rather than genuine support for the children.
Examples of feasible and impactful material support include providing a suitable learning environment with adequate lighting and quietness, a simple library appropriate for the children's age, and access to the internet and some educational games. Additionally, providing a healthy diet that includes essential growth nutrients, particularly proteins, vegetables, and micronutrients, is crucial for supporting mental growth, memory, and cognitive skills.
Emotional Support
Emotional well-being and psychological health are guaranteed pathways to academic success, primarily facilitated by the family. This role precedes and envelops material support with mercy and love, a role that schools cannot fulfill alone, regardless of the availability of psychologists or social workers.
Children's need for unconditional love can only be satisfied in a family environment. This love enhances self-confidence, increases resilience, reduces stress and intense emotions, all of which positively impact academic performance. A child who feels secure in a loving family environment will not fear exams or oral presentations, unlike a child suffering from the syndrome of failure due to the lack of a secure and loving family atmosphere, leading to psychological disorders and poor academic performance.
Emotional well-being and psychological health are essential guarantees of academic success, the most important role played by the family.
It is also crucial to avoid harmful comparisons, as each child possesses different types of intelligence, abilities, and personal characteristics. Every child is unique in some way, even those with learning or reading difficulties have distinctive points that need to be supported and developed. Comparing a child's progress to themselves rather than their peers, with full partnership between the family and school in adopting this approach, is essential. Here, the family's duty is to communicate with the school and teachers to ensure consistency in the strategy used to develop the child's skills.
The family should also activate listening and communication skills, creating an environment for open dialogues without restrictions, allowing the child to express their thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment. Families must have emotional intelligence, minimizing criticism to avoid the child building psychological barriers that hinder communication. Guidance should be given intelligently and kindly, with real and symbolic stories often being very effective. The psychological support and motivation provided by the family serve as the spark that unleashes the children's potential to strive for moral and academic excellence.
Successful Management
One of the family’s most important roles in leading the educational process is through successful life management for children, helping them manage and organize their time efficiently. There should be allocated times for academic study, fun, self-learning, and skill development. Children, especially at younger ages, need assistance in creating suitable task lists and monitoring their execution, which involves intelligent parental supervision and joint evaluation of results to adjust the task lists accordingly.
Family management of the educational process sometimes includes diving into details like homework follow-up, academic explanation, or training. It might also involve remote supervision and helping children use the internet and artificial intelligence for learning, with necessary monitoring to prevent misuse of these tools, leading them to take other negative paths.
Successful educational families guide their children to success in all aspects—religiously, morally, life-wise, and academically.
Even in later stages, children need family support to help them choose the right academic major suitable for the job market, away from societal or peer pressure. Often, children suffer from goal confusion and lack the life experiences needed to select their higher education path. Parental support and guidance become crucial here, to avoid wasting time and money on unsuccessful trials. However, parents can only fulfill this role appropriately if there's a solid educational foundation filled with trust and friendship. Dry advice won't be effective at this stage, and making firm decisions on behalf of children due to their lack of experience won't yield beneficial results for their academic journey or psychological maturity.
In summary, a successful educational family is one that leads its children to success in all aspects: religiously, morally, life-wise, and academically, by effectively managing their material and human resources, creating smart goals, and diligently monitoring progress until these goals become tangible outcomes. An educationally successful family is open to collaboration with schools, values modern learning tools without fearing them, exercises necessary caution, and relies on Allah in their efforts to invest in their children to be honorable models for an Ummah striving for revival.
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