The
basic unit of society is the family. The family is the very heart of the
society, men’s system of living together in this world. The family is the first
socializing agent and the source of strength and stability of its members. A
child that is brought forth in this world belongs to a family. The family,
therefore, especially the parents, play a vital role in instilling values and
attitudes to the children and able to support and give them a bright future.
However
there may be instances when a child is left by his biological parents in the
care of another entity mainly because of poverty. There could be many reasons
why the mother would be willing to give up her child to be taken care of by
grandparents or relatives. Another reason could be separated parents with both
of them having another family again. The child may have been left an orphan as
a consequence of the death of parents, either the father or the mother. It may
also be because one or both parents went abroad to work because of economic
pressure.
Poverty
and the demands of daily living have pushed not only the father to work but the
mother as well. This has caused a departure in the mother’s traditional
responsibility of child rearing and doing the household chores. In addition to
child rearing, the responsibilities of housekeeping are already being shared by
the husbands of working mothers. But considering that both husband and wife
need to go out to work at least 8 hours a day for five days a week to maintain
the standard of living of the family and provide for the needs of their growing
children, the latter are left to the care of non- biological parents either in
another home and in schools. This situation, according to Huh1 has
created child rearing and upbringing problems that develop implications in the
growth and development of the child. Palispis2 says that any person
or institution that shares a person’s values and behavior is an agent of
socialization. Although these agents are particularly important in the early
years of the life cycle socialization is a lifetime process that continues
across the life span.
The
causes of change in the family, according to Spocks,3 are the mass
media, peer group, parents, and technological change. The media like the television, radio and other
broadcast media as well as print media play a very important role in
the process of socialization. The radio or television program, to which the
child is exposed to, will certainly influence his personality, values, and
belief system. Among peers, socialization focuses more on the children’s
interest and activities than on the priorities of adults. While peer groups are
important to all adolescents, they are especially influential when parental
guidance, affection and attention are lacking. Alienated and delinquent
adolescents are more deeply affected by their peers than adolescents who are
not alienated from their families and do not have history of delinquency. Some
parents get separated from their children because of economic pressure. They
know that going abroad raises the household’s standard of living. But
emotional, strain, loneliness, and anxiety become major problems both of husband
and wife. In this kind of situation of the family, there is tendency that
couples separate and children will suffer a lot of difficulties. As technology
develops, there are newer video games, internet and music videos. Video games
much more than violent movies have the ability to capture children imagination
and train their emotions to accept violence because with video games children
are active participants. The majority of household now have cable television
and with it music videos. Most of these videos contain sexual images often
bordering on pornography. Violence is common, including violence against women.
There are chat rooms where people can participate in round table discussion in
every imaginable subject. Because of these changes, having a healthy family is
hard to achieve.
In
our society today, it is observed that the children have different behaviors
from those of the earlier generation. These behavioral differences may be rooted
in the way the different aspects of life are handle, one of which and probably
the most influential is how the family has been treated.
The
researcher chose this study because of her great concern for the growth and
development of the child. It is observed that the major issue in the
educational system is the declining standard of education. According to Paloma,4
teachers are accused of being incompetent. It is easy to blame teachers and
school administrators when our children bring home failing grades. While it is
true that some teachers are not the most skillful, some children are clearly
able to learn from them. And
even though schools do not have the best facilities, some children manage to
get an education there and go on to graduate from college and universities.
Why, because what happens at school is only one part of education process. The
parents, also, have a vital role in determining the children’s success. Parents
may not have realized it, but children’s teachers want help. Most teachers take
pride in their work. They are competent and dedicated.
Nothing gives greater satisfaction
than helping others develop their talents. Through the researcher’s observation
as well as those of her co-teachers, the behavior, and attitude of pupils are
worsening and their academic performance is decreasing. The reasons are some
pupils are observed to be lazy in their seatwork/homework, projects are not
accomplished because of poverty and some parents and guardians of pupils are
less supportive and guiding at home because majority of parents and guardians
have attained elementary level only. There is no challenge or motivation to
pursue higher levels of education, there is lack of ambition and are contented
with their present life situation dictated by their economic environment so the
needs of the children in the school is inadequate. According to the writer and
her co-teachers, pupils are seen to become bullies, clowns, hard headed, noisy,
selfish, dependent, tactless and aggressive. Others are observed to be kind,
attentive, considerate, helpful, polite, independent, obedient, tactful,
talented and respectful. The academic performance of some of those who are
under the care of biological parents are of low average, some are high as well.
This was confirmed based on their Form 137 and Form 138. With these
observations, the parents and guardians must be aware of the problem of their
children. The researcher would like
the parents to teach
their children to value education, to do their homework/seatwork, to have the right
use of television, to communicate,
to be honest, and to respect authority
so that the children would become successful in their studies.
It
if for this reason that study was conducted to find out the child care
practices of parents and guardians of pupils of Santa Isabel Sur Elementary
School and its effect on their academic performance.
