{"id":16799,"date":"2019-06-14T04:45:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T04:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=16799"},"modified":"2019-06-15T12:13:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T12:13:13","slug":"divorced-dads-often-dissed-by-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/divorced-dads-often-dissed-by-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorced dads often dissed by schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jessica Troilo<\/a>, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

By the time Father\u2019s Day<\/a> takes place, the school year is usually over.<\/p>\n

In many ways, that\u2019s an apt metaphor for how divorced fathers \u2013 or fathers who don\u2019t live with their children \u2013 get treated by their children\u2019s schools. That is, they\u2019re often simply not seen as part of what takes place at school. These fathers are often viewed as irresponsible and uninvolved<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I learned this by talking to 20 fathers as part of my research<\/a>. I found that divorced fathers, especially those who don\u2019t share a residence with their children over 50% of the time, can find it challenging to remain involved in their children\u2019s academic development. Several fathers told me about how often teachers and administrators at their children\u2019s schools fail to recognize them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son\u2019s school never calls me,\u201d one father told me in a statement that could be emblematic of the plight of noncustodial fathers.<\/p>\n

Messages home<\/h2>\n

Many schools simply assume mothers are the primary parent to contact regarding schooling. Consequently, I found<\/a> schools tend not to send information to both parental households or inform nonresidential fathers about how their children are doing in school.<\/p>\n

Divorced dads also told me that they often found out about school events at the last minute \u2013 if at all.<\/p>\n

When schools treat fathers like they don\u2019t exist, it\u2019s not serving students well.<\/p>\n

Academic and social benefits<\/h2>\n

When fathers who don\u2019t live with their children are involved with their kids\u2019 school, the kids are less likely to repeat a grade or be suspended<\/a>. They are also more likely to have higher grades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Children who have more involved<\/a> fathers also tend to be psychologically, cognitively and physically healthier. When fathers take active roles in reading with and to their children, support their academic outcomes and are involved with their schools, children tend to graduate high school and have financial stability as adults.<\/p>\n

The difference that involved fathers make begins early. For instance, children with fathers who spoke more words<\/a> while reading to them as children grew up to have stronger vocabulary and math skills compared to peers whose fathers spoke less.<\/p>\n

Fathers can also disrupt<\/a> some of the negative influences in the community \u2013 such as crime, dropping out of school and earning less money \u2013 when they are more involved in their children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

Being involved in children\u2019s education is even more critical<\/a> for children of color as compared to white children because of systematic racism some parents of color experience.<\/p>\n

Father involvement may be especially important<\/a> for Latino boys\u2019 academic motivation. Similarly, children of African American fathers who have high academic expectations are often more academically successful as a result.<\/p>\n

This benefit can exist whether they share the same residences with their children or not.<\/p>\n

Divorced mothers face challenges, too. When couples divorce, mothers<\/a> become less involved in their children\u2019s schooling, usually because of having to work longer hours outside the home.<\/p>\n

Using tech to bypass drama<\/h2>\n

Of course, when divorced dads have conflicts with their children\u2019s mothers, it can make it more challenging to stay involved in their children\u2019s education. The fathers I spoke with said conflicts with their former spouses often led them to find out about parent-teacher meetings, school activities or extracurricular performances after the fact.<\/p>\n

Some fathers sought to work around the conflict by using email or text messages. One father texted his daughter every day because \u201cit\u2019s just like you\u2019re there.\u201d This way, he said, he learned the dates of important tests and how she did on them. He also learned about her swim meets. Another father with younger children said his former spouse let him know about a play his son was in \u201conly 30 minutes before it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully I have a flexible job and could make it,\u201d the father said.<\/p>\n

Research shows the benefits of father involvement transcend academics.
\nSome research suggests<\/a> that these benefits extend to other areas of their children\u2019s lives because kids feel good when dads are invested.<\/p>\n

Persistence and consistence can be a challenge. One study found<\/a> that two or three years after a divorce, 22% of fathers no longer had contact with their children and only 31% saw their children each week.<\/p>\n

For all these reasons, I see an urgent need for schools to make sure that fathers are given an opportunity to play a meaningful part of their children\u2019s education. Father\u2019s Day may come at the end of the school year or when school is out. But that doesn\u2019t mean they should be ignored throughout the rest of the school year.<\/p>\n

[ Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation\u2019s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.<\/a><\/em> ]\"The<\/p>\n

Jessica Troilo<\/a>, Associate Professor of Child Development and Family Studies, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Troilo, West Virginia University By the time Father\u2019s Day takes place, the school year is usually over. In many ways, that\u2019s an apt metaphor for how divorced fathers \u2013 or fathers who don\u2019t live with their children \u2013 get treated by their children\u2019s schools. That is, they\u2019re often simply not seen as part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[2564,2563,6501,1737,3876,2467,2437],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16805,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16799\/revisions\/16805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}