Mission
Parents As Primary Teachers, Inc. provides parents and guardians with training and support so they can help their children excel academically.
Vision
Parents As Primary Teachers (PAPT) incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2003 to get parents/guardians actively involved in ensuring their children’s high quality, well-rounded education as a matter of common practice. To achieve this goal, we engage parents and children in entertaining, academically-enriching activities while teaching families how to integrate meaningful learning experiences into their lifestyles. Through our programs, PAPT clarifies the NYS education standards for families and demonstrates how to tailor exchanges towards meeting and exceeding the standards.
Our program designs support parents/guardians by making arts, stem (science, technology, engineering, and math), sports, travel, civic, and business education accessible to children otherwise limited by their family and school’s constrained budgets. As these vital experiences contribute to the physical growth of children’s brains they, also, promote children’s natural love of learning. Simultaneously, parents enjoy a better understanding and appreciation of their children’s learning styles and talents. Parents, also, gain confidence in their ability to assist and advocate for their children. As a value-added bonus, these positive teaching and learning interactions nurture a trust and openness that leads children to turn to their parents and guardians as they face life’s challenges.
The Center on Education Policy published a study report in October 2007 entitled “Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?” This study reinforced the significance of PAPT’s vision and mission by disclosing that the distinct advantage that private schools have over public schools is the larger proportion of parents that contribute to their children’s academic success through assistance with schoolwork, involvement in the school, and shared academic enrichment activities. Positive, academic interactions with parents and peers contribute to the cultural capital that children draw connections to in their class-work and on assessments.
History
|
|
Yoidette Erima; Columbia University graduate, Teach for America alumnus, taught elementary school in Brooklyn and the Bronx while earning her masters degree at Lehman College where her thesis “Educating African American Adolescents toward Becoming Responsible Handlers of Power” made a simple assertion: “The rearing of a leader cannot begin without family involvement.” The public response to Parents As Primary Teachers was strong: parents, including fathers, jumped at the chance to bond with their children during fun, interactive learning experiences that mixed music, geography, acting, literature, science, and filmmaking into a project-based thematic learning approach that is child centered.
|
