How Do Motivate Children to Do Well in School?

Introduction

According to Pai (2006), multiculturalism is an act of appreciating ethnic diversity of different people within a society which primarily encourages them to know and learn more from their involvement with other people from diverse ethnic background. He points out that cultural diversity is essential in portraying children’s learning procedures as based on their cultural belief systems within their family or society in whole. He notes that second language children normally use their multilingual identity to establish their cultural beliefs that fully enhance their learning abilities. According to him, language is an essential tool that helps each family member to identify and maintain his or her moral conduct that not only portrays his or her individual identity but that is of the entire community especially in enhancing education standards.

Congress & Gonzalez (2009) point out that second language parents play a critical role in enhancing children’s educational development patterns and learning skills. They point out that children’s learning ability in obtaining higher educational grades is strongly influenced by their families’ background which normally portrays their families’ identities. They note that second language parents with strong cultural values incorporated and practiced in their families normally enhanced their children with equal strong learning abilities. According to them, at times, the second language parents normally associate their children’s learning disabilities as primarily connected to some of their cultural practices or beliefs which undermines their children’s learning ability. In establishing the impact of multiculturalism in children’s school performance, the write up concentrates on the role of the second language parents from the Micronesian Islands, Asia and Philippines in motivating their children to do well in school.

How Parents from Micronesian Islands encourage their Children to do Well in School

The Chuukese Parents

According to Stoicovy, Murphy & Sachuo (2011), Chuukese are a diverse group of people who occupy the Micronesian Island and normally are characterized by strong cultural values. They point out that both the cultural and linguistic differences of these people have not only affected their children’s performance in the U.S. schools but also their parents’ involvement in educational intervention in improving their children’s learning abilities. They note that most of the Chuukese parents are normally engaged into more than two jobs in coping with American’s economic situation and helping their families perform. Knowing that their children are faced with English discrepancy, these parents do not only fail to find time to help their children to develop learning abilities but also are unable to read together with their children which is essential for their education standard in U.S schools.

However, in curbing the above challenges Stoicovy, Murphy & Sachuo (2011) point out that since respect to elders and others in the family is highly valued by the Chuukese community, Chuukese parents normally encourage the children by teaching them to be obedient and respectful to their teachers so that they develop a good moral conduct towards education system. They note that communication between children and teachers is essential in developing such moral conduct and for that purpose, Chuukese parents normally call for teachers’ responsibility in providing translated materials to parents which can help them understand and teach English language to their children.

Additionally, Stoicovy, Murphy & Sachuo (2011) point out that Chuukese parents normally hire English translators in traditional gatherings or churches which not only encourage their children in developing good moral conducts, but also assist them in the understanding of English which is essential for their learning. In countering school attendance which is not compulsory in Chuuk’s educational system, they note that Chuukese parents normally encourage their children to attend schools by eliminating all the possible barriers. They, for example, provide lunch meals to their children. Furthermore, they point out that Chuukese parents normally become active school board members to ensure that their students are actively involved in the learning process thereby improving on their performance.

The Paulauans Parents

Similarly, the Paulauans children also encounter the same challenges as that of Chuukese in their learning abilities. According to Luka (2008), the Paulauans traditional beliefs and cultural characteristics which are full of good moral values such as respect, responsibility to individual’s humility, and verbal coherent are essential especially for parents encouraging their children to do well in U.S. schools. According to him, the Paulauans parents normally encourage their children to develop respect because they believe that by doing so, they are able to learn from others. He notes that Paulauans parents normally instill respect that will enable children to develop accountability among them. This helps ensure that the children do their homework which is essential in their learning process.

Luka (2008) points out that Paulauans parents normally encourage their children to venture in various occupations from which they are able to involve in good classroom groupings that are essential for them in acquiring U.S. classroom standards. He notes that Paulauans parents normally regard their children’s involvement into various occupations as a bridge that connects their children’s learning skills to the learning techniques. Thus, they normally encourage their children to join clubs such as wood carving clubs from which they are able to perform different assignments and share their personal knowledge and skills with others thereby enhancing their educational standards which is essential for US schooling.

However, Luka (2008) points out that the Paulauans parents’ role towards their children’s learning ability does not stop at their duties distribution level, but it continues through their mentorship programs at their family, society and community levels. He notes that in cases where children have chosen occupation to undertake, their Paulauans parents normally find a person who would mentor them thereby developing advanced knowledge that is useful for their learning ability. He points out that each family member is given a distinct family role that ensures that the male family members mentor their sons while female family members mentor their daughters. According to him, these functional groupings enable Paulauans’ children to develop better understanding of their co-values. This in turn enables them to form better class groupings thereby enhancing on their educational standards.

Moreover, Luka (2008) notes that Paulauans parents normally encourage heir children to chant and tell stories which not only promote their language fluency among them but also expand their knowledge on cultural diversity of other people from which they create good moral values towards them.  He points out that the United States comprises of various immigrants who have different cultural diversities and primarily form the classroom population. Therefore, encouraging their children to know their colleagues cultural beliefs, the Paulauans are creating cordial interaction of children which is essential for their education.

The Pohnpeians Parents

On the other hand, Donahue (2010) points out that the Pohnpeians parents also play a significant role in ensuring that their children are equally educated in the US schools. He notes that, contrary to the past where Pohnpeians dissociated themselves with formal educational systems, they have presently embarked on encouraging their children to do well in school. According to him, the Pohnpeians education system is normally based on gender influence which primarily determines what a child is able to learn at school. However, he notes that while the community could allow its children to learn any skill of their preference based on his or her gender identity, children who would wish to venture into very strenuous courses such as medicines are thoroughly assessed by the community on their ability and skills towards such courses. He notes that this enables children to have adequate learning skills that are essential for their performance.

Donahue (2010) points out that the cultural characteristics of Pohnpeians normally stipulate that their male family members have to engage in fishing and gathering. He points out that when Pohnpeians parents engage their students in such practices, they develop practical understanding not only about fishing but also about the fish which is primarily learned in the US schools.

The Kosraean Parents

The parents of Kosraean families equally play a key role in improving their children’s educational standards. According to Low, Clarence & William (2008), the Kosraean parents normally structured their informal teaching responsibility among their family members from the very young to the elderly so as not only to learning skills among their children, but also to encourage these children to acquire the learning skills. They note that based on the Kosraean cultural dependency on extended families and kinship, the primary role of each parent is to create an active communication environment for their children through oral language development.  They point out that this enables them to easily comprehend the English language enabling them to make use of available printed English materials from which they develop further learning skills.

The Parents from Asia and the Philippines

According to Catalano (2011) the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans parents normally have multilingual characteristics which do affect their children’s learning abilities. However, she points out that most of the parents from these communities normally attend various functions especially the American Culture Nights from which they are able to develop a clear understanding about the United States education systems. She notes that these parents normally take home their acquired skills from which they are able to educate their children especially in learning English.

Catalano (2011) points out that most of these organized events are primarily constituted to help these parents in learning the behavioral characteristics that are envisaged in the America’s classroom but are not practiced by these groups yet are important for learning abilities. For instance, an eye to eye contact between children and teachers is essential for the child’s learning process yet cultural practices of Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese normally bars children for engaging in such practices by training them to look downward and away from their teachers especially when in classroom. Therefore, she notes that by understanding the behavioral impact of these practices in children’s education, these parents normally convey the same by teaching their children in disregarding the practices which can adversely affect their performance.

According to Kim, Benner & Ongbogan (2009), the Philippinos parents apart from engaging in various jobs that enable them to raise a recommended school fees for their children, tend to dissociate their children from cultures that can negatively affect their educational stands. They note that the Philippinos groupings are normally based on gender associations which normally see female distance themselves from their male counterparts. They point out that such groupings at times undermine the children’s ability to access and acquire more learning skills that are essential for the educational standard. In addressing the gender differences, the Philippinos parents normally interchange their moral values that will ensure that male family members become mentors of their female children with female counterparts also do so with their male children. They note that this helps their children in creating good learning groups which is essential for their educational performances.

Best Practices to Motivate Children to Do Well in School

Wherry (2006) points out that encouraging good communication skills between parents and their children helps the children in setting proper educational expectations. He notes that through cordial relationship between parents and their children, both are able to find the children’s strength and weakness from which they are able to re-evaluate themselves so as to improve on their grades. On the other hand, he points out that linking the children’s good grades with interactive rewards normally motivates them to continue doing better in education. He notes that promising children a little incentive if they perform better normally encourages them to work harder in acquiring such grades.

According to Wherry (2006), children can be motivated to do well if their parents help them in setting and acquiring of education goals. He notes that by establishing educational goals, children are able to work hard on various subjects so as to meet their targeted goals. He points out that parents, in encouraging their children, should not only provide their children with relevant educational materials, but should also be able to assist them where children encounter challenges. Moreover, he points out that parents should support their children’s learning ability by primarily practicing activities that do not negate their moral values and those of their children. According to him, children may emulate the bad moral behaviors from their parents which may adversely affect their moral standard towards education system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the write up has made it clear that even though diverse cultural and multilingual characteristics have hindered various US’ immigrants in attaining better learning standards, parents from these communities have a significant role to play in encouraging their children to do better in schools. It has pointed out the need for parents to encourage their children to actively participate in activities that improve their learning ability especially that in acquiring other foreign languages so as to effectively adapt to the education system. Moreover, the paper has pointed out the need for parents to actively participate in each stage of educational initiation of their children so as to help them develop better learning skills thereby improving their education standards.