Authored by Yvette Gittens, a seasoned early childhood practitioner and literacy specialist based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this op-ed frames holistic childhood education as a three-legged stool, where the school, the learner, and the family form equally foundational supports that must operate in tandem to keep the entire structure stable. Much like a physical stool that topples immediately if any one leg cracks or fails to bear its share of weight, a child’s path to sustained academic achievement collapses when one stakeholder group pulls back from its core responsibilities — and right now, Gittens argues, the “home leg” of that educational support structure is crumbling, with young learners bearing the steepest, most long-lasting consequences.
Classroom educators across the nation are putting in relentless, uncompensated extra hours to deliver high-quality, engaging instruction to their students, but all that carefully planned effort is systematically undermined the second the final school bell rings each weekday. The literacy specialist makes a passionate, unvarnished call for a long-overdue public conversation: guardians and parents can no longer treat their children’s education as an exclusively school-run responsibility, and must actively show up as collaborative, consistent participants in their child’s day-to-day learning journey.
The tangible evidence of widespread parental disengagement, Gittens notes, is carried visibly in the backpacks that children sling over their shoulders on their daily commute to and from school. Frontline educators are documenting a pervasive, deeply troubling pattern: textbooks are returned to classrooms in tattered, water-stained condition, with crumpled bent pages, torn spines, and missing front and back covers. Far more concerning, large swathes of assigned homework pages inside those same books sit completely blank for days at a time. Many of these half-finished assignments show clear marks that the child tried to work through the problems independently, but hit a wall they could not climb without a gentle nudge, a quick explanation, or basic accountability from an adult at home, leading them to abandon the rest of the work unfinished.
This pattern of incomplete work persists even when teachers send repeated, clearly written reminders home to alert parents of missing assignments, damaged materials, or unmet learning milestones. When a child’s backpack goes unopened and unchecked for multiple consecutive days, it sends an unspoken, damaging message to the young learner that their schoolwork, their progress, and their time spent in the classroom do not matter enough for the adults they trust most to pay attention.
Academic achievement can never be a one-sided, teacher-only endeavor. Educators can walk students through new concepts step by step, unpack confusing lessons, and offer targeted support during class hours, but they cannot follow every child back to their home after dismissal to reinforce those lessons, check for understanding, or enforce consistent homework routines. A child’s long-term success is heavily dependent on the predictable structure and gentle accountability that only a consistent home environment can provide. When parents ignore teacher outreach and opt out of basic learning supports, they rob their children of the critical practice and knowledge reinforcement that homework is designed to deliver, putting them at high risk of falling behind their peers and developing persistent, hard-to-fix learning gaps down the line.
Gittens references a widely circulated online cartoon that highlights this growing disconnect: when a teacher asks a young student to turn in his completed homework, the child casually responds that the assignment is still at home. Pressed on why he did not bring it to class, he shrugs and says “Because it’s homework!” While the exchange reads as a lighthearted viral joke for casual online viewers, the real-world reality behind that punchline is no trivial matter. For educators who pour their full energy and passion into supporting their students, and for young learners who are desperate to master foundational literacy and numeracy skills, this widespread lack of home follow-through is a formidable, avoidable barrier to meaningful learning.
Crucially, Gittens emphasizes that stepping up as an engaged parent does not require a formal education degree, specialized tutoring training, or hours of intensive one-on-one study sessions every night. It only demands small, consistent daily habits that any caregiver can integrate into their routine: a quick 2-minute daily backpack check every afternoon after school to review notices from teachers, assess the condition of learning materials, and confirm all assigned work is accounted for; intentional guidance to teach children to respect and care for their textbooks and school supplies, including simple steps like covering books with protective material and flattening crumpled pages; a fixed, distraction-free daily homework window free of televisions, mobile devices, and other interruptions, where parents verify that no assignments are left blank rather than taking a child’s offhand “I have no homework” answer at face value; and prompt, respectful communication with teachers, viewing classroom staff as collaborative partners rather than adversaries or de facto full-time babysitters.
Teachers are already fulfilling their end of the educational partnership, Gittens notes, but they cannot carry the full weight of supporting a child’s learning alone. It is long past time for parents to meet school staff halfway, unzip those neglected backpacks, and take small, consistent actions to actively secure their children’s long-term future. As a dedicated educator who views guiding a classroom full of young learners as a cherished God-given gift, Gittens adds that this op-ed serves as a gentle but firm reminder to parents to fulfill their shared responsibility to nurture the precious young lives in their care. These children, she concludes, are just as much a gift to their teachers as they are to their families, and when home and school work in full alignment, communities can successfully raise the next generation of capable, empowered leaders.
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The three-legged stool: why a child’s success demands support at home from parents
