Chopper Parents

I captured this image at on the first day of the school year. You can see parents crowding outside a 2nd grade classroom, peeking inside.



I’m sure many will have similar reactions to mine. My mind was crying: “Sheez, people! Just back the hell off!”

When I posted the image on Facebook, someone mentioned that helicopter parent are increasing in the US, but that they have nothing on Korea.

A helicopter parent is a parent who figuratively hover over their child and get involved in basically every part of their lives, most notably their education. You would think this is bad, but the alternative is much worse.

Research shows that parental involvement in education is the number one factor in a child’s success in school. Not his socio-economic background. Not her IQ. Not their teachers. Parental involvement is the number one indicator.

When parent are concerned with and get involved in the education of their children, then those children tend to be successful in school.

These parent in the image might be taking it a bit too far, but they might be forgiven if we consider that these might be their eldest and possibly only children. Traditionally parents take immense pride in what the eldest does, and if it is the only child they often treat him or her like gold because there might never be another chance to experience that particular moment.