STEM Preparation: The Role of Parents and Positive Adults
Yesterday I wrote about the conference "Creating Minnesota's Plan for Career Development in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math". The morning roundtable session had some important observations about the role of parents in building the success of their children, a role that is often problematic in poor, stressed families:
- Kids respond to positive adults in their lives, whether parents, mentors, caregivers, or custodians.
- Family is critical, but reaching parents may be a challenge. There are economic and cultural issues that may keep parents from supporting the aspirations of their kids, or from recognizing that strong and continuing education is crucial to their kids' success.
- We need more and better resources outside the home to enable parents to support their children.
- Better use of after-school time, while parents are at work and kinds are now often at loose ends, would lead to more learning and a more productive day.
- Business wants to know how to help. One way is to realize that many of their employees are also parents, so that parental support and education programs could be part of the workplace experience in progressive companies.
A related point that emerged later in the discussion is that in high tuition-high financial aid states like Minnesota, poor kids can't take advantage of college financial aid opportunities unless they know about them and have someone help them prepare the paperwork and navigate the system. If their parents aren't aware, they may miss out on financial aid that could spell the difference between going to college or getting a go-nowhere job.
Promising access to higher education is an empty promise if the students who most need financial help to attend college don't have access to the information and skills that would enable them to avail themselvves of the aid.