Traditional School Participation Model

Situation:

• A school is available where the family spends part of the school year.

• School personnel commit to serve families who are not on site all the time.

Commitment:

• Parents commit to following the school’s program.

• Parents commit to supervising their children’s work when away from the school setting.

Program:

• Children attend classes when living at the school location.

• Teachers provide materials and lesson plans for the family to use when they live elsewhere.

• Upon returning to the school setting, students are expected to have completed the same assignments as classmates there.

Advantages:

• Educational program and resources are provided through an accessible traditional school.

• More resources are available than a family could provide on their own.

• Resources may be available to provide some of the “extras” that children might lack in an allocation setting (music, art, sports, drama, choir.)

• Teachers and sometime other professionals in education are available for consultation.

• Peers are available for academic interaction and friendships when the family stays at the school location which provides academic motivation and development of social and classroom skills.

• Moving between allocation and school, children have the opportunity to learn adaptability to different people, cultures, expectations and circumstances.

• It is sometime easier to find teachers for “traditional” school settings (which are similar to their training and experience) than for nontraditional programs.

Disadvantages:

• Educational programs are usually designed with the regular school program in mind. Allocation children fit in as best they can. (Sometimes, however, what works for a teacher in a classroom may not work for a parent and child in an allocation, and sometimes classroom teachers have a hard time understanding that.)

• Families have less flexibility since they need to fit into the school’s schedule and use the same curriculum as those at the school.

• Usually resources and teachers fill needs in the school first. Allocation families’ needs may not receive as high a priority.

• A traditional school’s program is usually patterned after a particular country’s school system. That cultural bias may make the program unsuitable for families with other cultural backgrounds and educational philosophies.

• Classroom teachers can perceive the responsibility of planning and supervising allocation children’s programs as an extra burden. It can be difficult to handle the unscheduled comings and goings of village families.

• Children coming back to school may find it difficult to “break in” again to the social structure of the class. Much depends on teacher attitudes.

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