Spanish education delves into a thorny debate. Prickly and striking. Should parents get involved in their children’s university education? If a father accompanies his 19, 20 or 21-year-old son to school to take care of registration procedures, manage an internship or even review an exam, is he doing him a favor or harming him? It may seem like an artificial controversy, but over the last week the debate has been heated by two viral posters posted by two Spanish universities, that of Granada and that of Oviedo.
What signs are those? The first one went viral a few days ago. In fact we talked to you about him a week ago. To make it clear how far the students’ parents can go, Pedro Valdivia, vice dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Granada (UGR), prepared a statement which soon became popular: “The Vice Dean of Practices does not serve parents. All enrolled students are of legal age.” The announcement caught the attention (among others) of the economist Daniel Arias-Arandaprofessor at the UGR, who launched a notice to surfers on their social networks who received hundreds of comments.
“When it is necessary to put up this sign at the university, something is wrong. Dear student: solve your own problems and don’t boss around mom and dad. Remember, the age of majority in Spain is 18,” the teacher ironized along with a photo in which you can see the poster of the Vice Dean of Practices hanging with thumbtacks from a cork and with the UGR logo printed in one corner.
And the other poster? The other, of very similar tone and background, arrives from the University of Oviedo. The news he advanced it The Commercewhich details that at the end of last year the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training decided to hang a poster in which it basically warns parents that they cannot act on behalf of their adult children: “Article 24. – Access by parents to the academic data of their children. In compliance with the Agreement of March 5, 2020, of the Governing Council of the UO, only students will be served.” And in case there was any doubt, yes, the emphasis is from the Asturian university itself.
Your warning is interesting because goes further of the one launched by the UGR and delves into details. Specifically, the Oviedo poster quotes the article on which the university is based and which settles any possible debate: “Academic data (related to enrollment, grades or scholarships of each student) constitute personal data whose processing is subject to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation. The communication of personal data relating to students to their parents constitutes data processing.” In order for them to access the information, a “legitimate interest” must be proven.
Why so much controversy? Because as remember Arias-Aranda himself, it is usual for students who arrive at universities to be of legal age or even (in the case of those who manage internships) to be in their twenties. Thus the spark arises. Should parents be in charge of procedures such as registration, internships, tutoring and exam reviews of students who are already adults and are one step away from entering the labor market as graduates? Should a parent have access to their child’s records to know what grades they get or whether or not they go to class?
As the Asturian faculty recalls, the debate may be settled at a regulatory level by the regulations on student data protection, but… Is it justified for a parent to want to go further? There are those who consider that the answer is yes. “If parents are the ones who pay for their children’s university (they must) be informed of the productivity of that investment,” think a user on social networks. “When the bosses don’t listen to reasons at work, you go back to the union member; when the university staff does the same, can’t the student come with the parents?” posed another days ago on LinkedIn.
What do the experts say? Come take a look at the reactions to Arias-Aranda’s publication on networks to verify that the topic generates controversy, but it is not difficult to find experts who warn of the risks of overprotecting children and relieving them of responsibilities, especially when they are already adults. Beatriz Valderrama, psychologist and expert in coaching and emotional intelligence, I insisted recently in The Country that this type of behavior on the part of parents is “counterproductive” and limits the development and autonomy of the young person, even when it is done “with the best intentions.”
José Ángel Morales, professor of Neuroscience at the Complutense University (UCM), speaks along similar lines, recalling that he has encountered students who attend check-ups accompanied by their parents. “In these cases I explain to the mother that what needs to be promoted is the student’s critical reasoning, that he is the one who refutes a correction, not his parents,” points out.
Celestino Rodríguez, dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Oviedo, recognize to The Commerce who has seen parents who don’t think it’s okay to be prevented from staying at their children’s academic meetings.
Is it a widespread problem? Valdivia and Morales assure that these are cases “isolated”not the general pattern, although the truth is that they are enough to have led at least two Spanish faculties to hang posters.
In reality, the phenomenon goes beyond Granada, Oviedo or the rest of Spain and connects with a reality about which experts they have been around for a while warning: the “helicopter parents”parents committed to permanently protecting their children, ensuring their choices, education… In other words, they ‘fly over’ their decisions and the overprotect. The trend also coincides with the emergence of a new fatherly profilefathers and mothers of Gen millennialstrained at universities, qualified (sometimes with managerial experience) and who feel legitimate to go to faculties to deal with professors.
Images | Victoria Heath (Unsplash) and Priscilla Du Preez CA (Unsplash)
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