First Parent University emphasizes need for communication and involvement with children

Maricopa’s first Parent University was held at Maricopa Elementary Saturday morning and provided insights and alternatives to common parenting issues.

Despite low attendance Superintendent Dr. John Flores, an organizer of the event, was optimistic that future Parent Universities would yield a higher turnout once word of the seminars spread throughout the community.

“It’s a beginning,” he said. “Parents understand that there are valuable insights given at these sessions, and they’re going to come out.”

Keynote speaker Christina Busch, Human Resources Director for the Tempe School District, opened with an activity for parents, asking them to list what they liked and disliked about their own parents’ methods, and, in turn, what they are currently doing for their own children.

Busch also was unfazed by the low turnout, saying that, as it becomes an annual event, the Parent University will only become bigger.

In her speech Busch emphasized the necessity of communication between parents and their children and offered creative solutions to cracking possible barriers, such as taking adolescents for a ride in the car, as this seems to be the time they talk the most. She also advocated a conscious effort to let a child speak free of any interruptions.

Busch said that she hoped the seminar validated some of the things that the parents attending were already doing, “…and to realize that there were lots of good things that they had as children and to incorporate some of those into their own children’s learning.”

She also stressed that too many parents are disinclined to become active in their children’s school community; they need to instead become “… inclusive of other parents and to help build that engagement in school communities.”

Keynoter Christina Busch, speaking at Saturday’s first Parent University, emphasized the importance of communication between parents and their children.


As part of one of the Parent University seminars, parents were asked to think about the parenting they received as well as their own parenting methodologies.

The informational seminar What You Need To Know About Life In Maricopa Schools, given by Maricopa Wells Middle School teachers Shannan White and Joyce King, presented parents with practical ways to stay involved in their children’s school lives, an area that they say is in need of improvement.

Communication between schools and parents in Maricopa is, at best, “getting better,” White said.

“Parent University, I think, is a good tool for parents…” White noted, adding that it should result in an exchange of accurate information, rather than hearsay about what is going on at the school.

White said that Parent University can be most helpful in giving instruction to those parents who want to be involved but don’t know how to go about it.

“Even myself, being an educator, I wonder, ‘how do I get involved?’ It’s hard,” King said.

For that reason, they presented key tools for maintaining communication with teachers, including online access to students’ grades and checking children’s student agendas.

“Getting the parents and the schools to work together … that’s what it’s all about,” King said.

They also suggested that future Parent Universities allow parents to shape the agendas with the topics that they want to know more about.

“Parents are number one; teachers are number two,” White said.

A number of parent workshops were offered as part of the program, ranging from How to Instill the Joy of Lifelong Reading to heavier topics such as Drug Awareness: How to Talk to Your Children.

Stephanie Sharp, principal at MWMS, attended not as an educator, but as a parent of six children, and said that it presented a good deal of vital information, adding her own advice to focus on communication.

“I think it’s important for people to remember to communicate with their kids,” she said.

Though no date is confirmed, Superintendent Flores said that discussions will begin soon to decide when the next Parent University will be held.