Rather than entirely entrusting the education of their children into the hands of teachers, good parents should also pay attention to what their children love to do.
In addition, they have to tune into how their children learn, practice what their children learn in school, and set aside good quality time to read and study with them.
The role of parents in the education of their children has long been recognized as a significant factor in educational success and school improvement.
In light of this, educational observers from Padang State University (UNP) in West Sumatra Prof Sufyarma Marsidin said parents should be actively involved in educating their children in order to be better prepared for the progress of the times.
However, he noted that currently the communication of parents with children is not going well because of the influence of technology and the economic burden that force them to busily pursue the necessities of life and have no time to interact with their children.
The professor of science education at the UNP explained due to the the busyness of the parents, they have to hand over their children`s education entirely to the school.
As a result, this has led to various kinds of juvenile delinquents such as promiscuity, narcotics, brawl and other criminal acts.
Although a considerable economic burden is felt by parents, they should be able to devote special time to their children such as providing dinner time with them.
The dinner time can be filled with discussions, listening to their children complaints, giving advice, feedback, and direction to them.
"This will make the children have emotional closeness with their parents," Marsidin said, adding that the education is divided into three systems namely family education, education from the community, and education from school.
According to him, these three systems of education have their respective roles in determining the success of children`s education.
Other areas of attention that parents cannot afford to ignore are helping their children to take charge of their learning, not over-scheduling the children, minimizing watching of television, and learning new things themselves as it is important for them to show their children that they too are making efforts to acquire new skills.
Indeed, character education, or the teaching of virtues, should start at home where children can learn through positive examples and encouragement from their parents.
Although character education is imparted in schools, it is not always merely the education that parents want their children to receive since if virtues are not reinforced and modeled at home, they will not exhibit good character or positive virtues.
Children who fail to receive character education at home will lack basic virtues that can lead to moral dilemmas in society.
Therefore, parents have to realize that character education, which encompasses honesty, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring for others, and even citizenship, should begin at home as teachers cannot do it all alone.
Honesty and trustworthiness are the foundation on which character is built at home, but parents are often confronted with children who are not trustworthy.
From an early age, one is challenged to be a good citizen on a daily basis.
Within the family, children learn to work together and bond with each other as a single unit to address issues in their community and make a difference.
In light of this, the National Commission for Child Protection has stated that the values of mental revolution can be imparted by the family, which serves as the primary vehicle for the young generation in shaping the character of the nation.
Character education in the family needs to be prioritized in order to create a golden generation that does not demonstrate negative behavior.
Today, there is an increase in the number of cases of sexual violence and other crimes whose perpetrators are still classified as children or adolescents.
In fact, children and teenagers are involved in cases of rape and other sexual offenses, and this is already very alarming.
Hence, this demonstrates that Indonesia is in a state of emergency with regard to sexual crimes or the equivalent of what has been called as child abuse emergency.
Therefore, the mental revolution movement, which is being echoed by the government, is expected to bring about a significant change in society.
For the national movement of mental revolution to yield results and to touch the root cause of the problem, the public must be encouraged to take the initiative in their homes.
Indeed, early childhood education at home and at school is very important as it can instill good values and develop a child`s personality.
Family education plays an important role in molding a child`s character. In this case, parents play an important role in developing good character traits in their children.
(O001/a014)
(T.O001/A/KR-BSR/A014)
Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
