Back to School Means Classes for Parents Too

Registration opened Wednesday at Parent University, a series of free courses for parentsliving within North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) District meant to help forge inter-generational understanding.

The 27-page course catalog includes offerings such as “Hip Hop/Pop Culture” and “Science Saturdays,” organized into four tracks: parenting awareness; helping children learn in the 21st century; health and wellness; and personal growth and development.

The initiative has received $300,000 in private grants, including $200,000 from the Wachovia Foundation and $100,000 from the Belk Foundation, according to the Charlotte Observer. The program was developed by a cadre of volunteers from various agencies along with staff members of the CMS District.

District superintendent Peter Gorman promised to create the Parent University program, based upon the Parent Academy offered by the Miami-Dade School District in Florida, soon after taking up his post in 2006. His wife, Sue, served as the volunteer coordinator of the N.C. version of the parental outreach series.

“Creating a successful student is like balancing a three-legged stool,” Sue Gorman writes on the CMS Parent University’s Web page. “CMS is working hard to strengthen the first two legs with strong principals, teachers and support staff. Parent University supports the third leg, strong parents, by providing in-depth access and expertise to you, the parent.”

The Miami-Dade County School District’s Parent Academy program was first launched at the start of the 2005-06 school year, following school board approval a year earlier. In addition to classes on how parents can better aid their children’s education, the Miami-Dade Parent Academy also includes courses targeted specifically for adult development, such as resume writing and how to tap into social-service programs.Joseph Garcia, a spokesperson for district superintendent Rudy Crew, was quoted as saying, “Our intention is to offer, throughout the year in a variety of settings, courses that will help parents help us help their children.”