Date: 27-08-2018

NEWS - Reluctant parents? CEI knows: Come time, come play.

Latvian Center of Education Initiatives knows about Parent Involvement.

As one of their teachers invited parents to help out their children during school hours by joining creative classes or other activities, one father loudly expressed himself, saying that he wasn’t willing to come and he didn’t have time for such useless actions. A disappointment really, because what can be more fulfilling than aiding your little one in developing creativity and learning?

After some time however, this father unfortunately lost his job. So when he came to bring his boy to preschool one morning, the teacher asked him on the spot to stay a bit and help the children make birdhouses. He did. Time went by quickly, but both father and the children again and again found common activities to do, and he ended up staying almost the entire day. After that, he gladly offered his help on various activities for as long as he was available.

A bold and clever move of the teacher, knowing that she had an opportunity to get a busy, and a bit cynical parent, to understand the importance of his involvement in his child’s development. And with such good outcome!


Vision of progress
The above clearly describes the vision of Center for Education Initiatives (CEI) in Latvia. They want children to enjoy coming to school, and to enjoy learning and playing. As a strategic goal, they aim to enhance the quality of education and make measurable changes to the system of learning as a whole, including parents.


Expertise for sharing
Within the ISSA network, the Center for Educational Initiatives is appreciated for its wide knowledge and experience on the implementation of various programs, such as ‘Parents school for pre-schools’ and ‘How to identify and work with gifted children.’ Therefore they welcome other ISSA members to make their interest in their expertise known.

Another topic to take profit from is their specific experience on conducting studies. CEI Latvia can help gather research information in various forms on various topics, whether as comparative material or as valuable input for new studies. ISSA members working with CEI will soon recognize their reliability and high quality partnership in international educational projects.


STEAM & Global Citizenship Education
In recent years, CEI has started active work on two topics: STEAM Education and Global Citizenship Education. They would love to exchange experiences with other countries and organizations on these topics and contribute to joint activities and projects for the wider development of knowledge and skills.

And from Latvia also some final words of wisdom. They say that a one good example, or even an interesting idea that was accidentally noticed, can motivate entirely new actions and unexpected achievements. They say: ‘Get inspired and do as we do, or even do better than us.’