Assignment for Fathers: Join in School Events

ANAHEIM — Tom Cryer sometimes rushes out of the office during his lunch break to pay bills for the county Parent-Teacher Assn. Later in the afternoon, he may collect goods for a food drive at his son’s school, then drive across town to coach a flag football game.

A manager for a computer manufacturer, Cryer often finishes up office work on the weekend. But that’s not a hardship, he said. His reward is helping his two children maintain straight A’s by being involved every day in their schooling.

“Fathers can make a difference,” said Cryer, who has been involved in PTA for six years. “It’s not just the mother’s job. If both parents show interest, . . . they bring a reassuring force to their children’s education.”

A new national study confirms that children whose fathers take an active role in their education are more likely to do well at school.

The project by the Washington-based National Center for Education Statistics surveyed the parents of nearly 17,000 schoolchildren across the nation. The conclusion was that youngsters are more likely to get A’s on their report cards if their fathers participate in at least three school events annually. It also found that those children are less likely to have poor attendance or to be expelled or suspended.

Active fathers, whether they live with or separate from their children, enhance the youngsters’ education by exposing them to economic and analytical skills, the federally funded study found. Those are common among men because they tend to hold jobs that require such abilities, the center’s report states.

Parents’ participation was determined by asking how many school events they attended. Those who signed up for at least three school activities annually were identified as “actively involved.”

PTA officials, school administrators and teachers say they are seeing an increase in the number of fathers spending time in the classroom and attending school functions. Some schools, such as Bathgate Elementary in Mission Viejo, have created dads committees to encourage men to organize campus events, volunteer in the classroom and meet other parents.

“More fathers are getting involved because they are realizing they can’t just complain about schools,” said Larry Malone, PTA president at Truman Benedict Elementary in San Clemente. “They know they have to be part of the solutions.”

Tom and Kathy Cryer, a personnel manager at a manufacturing company, said their decision to take leadership roles in their children’s schooling came from a commitment that their parenting would be a shared responsibility.

“We feel very strongly that being involved in our children’s education benefits the children and the schools,” Tom Cryer said. “The schools need input from parents too.”

Fathers sometimes are hesitant to get involved in school programs because that has traditionally been mothers’ role, and dads might believe there is no place for them, he said. But just the opposite is true.

“Fathers can make a difference,” he said. “Men can help with the practical labor that’s needed in preparing school events. And they can offer business and administrative skills.”

Consistent with the findings of the national study, the Cryers’ children excel at school. Candace, a seventh-grader at Orangeview Junior High in Anaheim, is a straight-A student who was honored last year for never having been absent from kindergarten through sixth grade. Tommy, a sixth-grader at Reid Elementary, also brings home all A’s, except for a B in handwriting this semester.

The Cryers say they are lucky to have flexible work schedules so they can attend a variety of school activities. But parents whose hours are more structured can still be active, teachers, school officials and PTA leaders say.

Here are some of their suggestions:

* Show school pride by helping out with fund-raisers for field trips, science camp and math competitions. Much of the work can be done at night or on weekends.

* Organize pancake breakfasts, family barbecues and other community events to build a school support system.

* If scheduled parent-teacher conferences conflict with your work hours, call the teacher and ask to meet at another time convenient for both of you.

* Pitch in when extra hands are needed to build sets for a school play, paint a backdrop for a concert or install new shelves for a classroom.

* If your work schedule does not allow you to visit the classroom during school hours, take your child to the library or a bookstore at night or on weekends.

* Read to your children at home.

The national report, “Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools,” is on the Internet at www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/fathers/