Synergeia’s philosophy and approach to education is premised upon the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. Indeed, the bulk of Synergeia’s efforts toward building various districts has included the presence of not just educators, but the local government units as well. Another major component is the inclusion of the parents in helping the children succeed. After all, learning, while done largely at school becomes more successful when reinforced at home.
In August, the municipality of San Jose in Antique held a Parent Leaders training session to help teach parents how they could be more involved with their children’s education.
The activity began with a sharing on what practices were already being done at home. Two mothers started sharing one after the other. They both have OFW husband. The first shared about her difficulty in disciplining her children. She emphasized the she has to muster enough patience to discipline her children especially those in the puberty stage. She cited an incident before she left the house. Her child who really wanted to practice driving bumped their car in their garage that caused dent on front portion of the vehicle. Another OFW mother said that his kids have the tendency to scatter their things around the house. A father stood up and shared his parenting style. For him the best way to hone the values of the children was to read bible stories to them because in the process the love for reading was being developed
Synergeia also became privy to the issues and problems faced by the parents when it came to their homes lives and heir children. For example: A mother of three whose children are not her biological children affirmed the difficulties in parenting especially of children coming from different family backgrounds. She was crying as she shared her woes with her three children and her struggles on how to make them at peace with each other. She was grateful though that this training provided her some simple ways of dealing with her children as shared by some parents.
One of the cornerstones of the training session was the story “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch, a sotry about how a mother remained devoted to her child throughout all the years of his life. The story served as a reminder of what the parents were working for and why it was important that be engaged and involved in their children’s lives.
