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Family time can benefit students in several ways
Nov 05, 2009
On Nov. 11, Dublin City Schools will join the Healthy Community/Healthy Youth Coalition in recognizing "Family Night." On two nights each year, we ask our buildings to schedule as few events as possible in order to allow our students to spend time with their families. With the pace of today's world, we know it can be hard to find time for something as simple as a family dinner.
Ask any of our high school students about their schedules, how much time is spent studying and if they are involved in an extracurricular activity or two, and you will find they can be spread thin. The same applies, of course, to working parents. With a variety of schedules present in any household, it is easy to see why family time sometimes gets sacrificed for other activities.
Development research suggests family support is an important factor in a child's academic performance, as well as a child's ability to make positive choices in life.
Healthy Community/ Healthy Youth has long been a proponent of the Search Institute's "40 Developmental Assets." The research group has put together a list of traits and values representing the build-ing blocks for helping raise young people. The No. 1 asset listed is family support and the No. 2 asset listed is positive family communication.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University recently put out the results of a study it conducted regarding the importance of family dinners.
According to the study, the number of family dinners a teenager has in a typical week is a powerful indicator of his or her risk of substance abuse. Teenagers who have dinner with their families five or more nights per week are one and one-half times less likely to be at risk for substance abuse.
The older students get, the less likely they are to have dinner with their families. Twice as many 12-year-olds as 17-year-olds have dinner with their families seven nights in a typical week, according to the study results. As students get older, and their schedules become more and more packed with activities and studies, the opportunity for family dinners tends to dwindle.
In education, data has long indicated students with the most support at home are more likely to succeed in the classroom.
It is with all of the above factors in mind that we invite you to join Dublin City Schools in recognizing Nov. 11 as Family Night.
David Axner is superintendent of Dublin City Schools.
David Axner
Copyright 2009
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