Parents: the Latino secret weapon in education

Written 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.

This article was first seen on beinglatino.wordpress.com & used with permission of the author.
If you would like to contact Jen or have additional questions, she can be reached at jdmatos@socialjusticeatwork.org.

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.