The Quiet Power Parents Hold in a Noisy Education System

Dec 14, 2025 Features / Columnists, News

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By Karen Abrams, MBA, A.A. Doctoral Candidate

(Kaieteur News) – A few days ago, I watched a short TikTok clip that stayed with me. It showed a Guyanese father who appeared to be a mechanic, working from his home. Grease on his hands, tools nearby, an ordinary workday. Then a taxi pulled up in front of the yard and his two young sons, maybe six and eight years old, stepped out.

He met them right there in the front yard.  He greeted them warmly, asked about their day, and checked whether they had any problems at school, including bullying. Then, almost seamlessly, he asked what they learned. The boys responded easily, explaining their lessons in full sentences, building on each other’s thoughts, clearly accustomed to being listened to. At one point, the father laughed and admitted he did not fully understand the topic, but he told them how proud he was.  What struck me was not just the conversation, but the routine. This was not a performance for social media. This was discipline in its quietest, most powerful form.

Too often we misunderstand discipline and associate it with shouting, punishment, or fear. Some still believe it requires beating children into submission.  Discipline does not mean screaming at children. It does not mean humiliation or fear. Those practices may enforce silence, but they do not build thinking. Research tells us the opposite. Discipline is structure. It is predictability. It is the steady rhythm of daily expectations that tells a child, this is how our family functions. Healthy discipline looks like limiting excessive device use. It looks like setting aside time to talk, to read, to review the day. It looks like asking children what they learned and what they hope to become.

Children thrive when routines are clear and stable. Developmental research consistently shows that structured after-school routines are associated with higher academic engagement, stronger language development, and better self-regulation. When children know that each day includes conversation, reflection, and learning, they arrive prepared. They speak with confidence because they expect to be heard.

Across the world, the evidence is remarkably consistent. The OECD has found that children whose parents regularly discuss school and maintain routines around learning perform significantly better in reading and mathematics, regardless of income. The World Bank reports that in low-resource settings, parental engagement can improve early literacy outcomes by the equivalent of a full academic year. UNICEF and the American Academy of Pediatrics warn that excessive, unsupervised screen time weakens attention, language development, and sleep, all of which directly affect learning.

Guyana is not unique. Our literacy challenges, math failures, and dropout rates mirror global patterns. Children fall behind early, lose confidence, and quietly disengage long before they officially leave school. By the time systems intervene, the damage is often already done.

This is why parents matter more than we are willing to admit.  Ministries can design policy. Schools can deliver curriculum. But no institution can replace what happens in homes after school. Education either sticks or collapses in kitchens, living rooms, and front yards.

This understanding is what led STEMGuyana to create the Parent Academy. We recognized early that sustainable improvement requires parents to learn first. Not to become teachers, but to become confident partners in the learning process. Our programme encourages parents to spend just one hour a day quietly learning the same lesson from the platform before working with their child. No pressure. No performance. Just understanding.  When parents learn first, homework becomes conversation instead of conflict. Children feel supported rather than judged. Confidence grows, not because children are pushed harder, but because they are steadied.

The father in that front yard was not delivering a lecture. He was modeling presence. He was reinforcing discipline through attention. Imagine what that does to a child’s self-esteem, to grow up knowing that your ideas matter and that someone will listen to you every day.

The global evidence is now overwhelming. Children do not stay in school because they are frightened into compliance. They stay because someone at home believes in them consistently enough to build structure around their lives.  Dropout is rarely a sudden decision. It is a slow withdrawal. A child stops raising a hand, stops trying, stops believing that effort leads anywhere. The most effective intervention happens long before that point, through ordinary routines practised faithfully.

Education reform does not begin in conference rooms or policy documents. It begins when a parent shows up daily, limits distractions, asks thoughtful questions, and talks to their child about the future.  This is good parenting, practised with intention.  And it remains the most powerful education reform tool we have.

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• Education System, Karen Abrams, Noisy, parents, Quiet Power

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