DECATUR, Ala. — Sending a child to school is so much more than just sending them off to learn math and language arts. School is also meant to teach young minds how to become well-rounded adults.
That's why the folks at Decatur City Schools want to get parents involved and extend this learning beyond school walls.
Decatur City Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Douglas says, "I think across the nation, all school systems are seeing an uptick in mental health issues and students just trying to deal with the uncertainty of the last two years."
Parent & Family Engagement Specialist, Decatur City Schools' Latoya Brown follows this up, explaining, "One of the goals of our family academy is to strengthen the parent-school relationship. So, in order to do that, we know that there has to be some effective communication."
Marsha Gill, a therapist at the Eagle Consulting Counseling Division, is enthusiastic about the program. "What a great opportunity to come together as a community and really teach our kids what it means to be their advocate, what it means to be their protector and most of all what it means to be their mentor, right? We talk about influencers being you know, huge in this digital era, but we have an opportunity as a collective community to really truly influence our kids in a positive way."
Educators understand that school goes beyond the student-teacher relationship, and that teachers and parents must be on the same page in
order to complete the same mission - educate their students.
Latoya Brown, a family engagement specialist and parent herself, agrees.
Brown says, "I understand that, as being a parent, I have to be in contact with the with the school, with the teacher. And that's just gonna make things more smooth for my child. Again, our goal is for my child to be successful. So we have to work together in order to make that happen."
Not only will this help strengthen education now, in the present but it will also make for a better future and all in the name of adversity and learning how to overcome it.
Dr. Douglas remarks, "We're putting out the next workforce so in order to produce a successful student out into that world. They've got to be able to handle adversity."
Brown adds, "In times of adversity is when we find our strength. And so I think we were all able to locate some strengths that we didn't know we had."