Empowered Father: Ricardo Montero

Ricardo Montero, with his wife, holding his award during our gala on March 25th, 2011. 

This week we are profiling another one of our esteemed fathers recently honored at our Celebrating Families: Fathers Matter gala event. Mr. Ricardo Montero is an example of just how dramatic an impact father's can have when they involve themselves with their children's education. Ricardo has been involved with EDUcación Para Nuestro FUTURO for over a year. He gives credit to his wife for finding out about Escuela Bolivia and encouraging him to attend. He started with PARTICIPA and later joined a PESA session. He immediately realized the value of the programs and the impact it could have on his family life. PARTICIPA helped him understand the education system better. PESA helped him feel like a better father. Together, it all helped him realize his potential in taking initiative as a father. He is currently a facilitator in training for future PESA sessions and we are proud of his continued involvement with our organization. 

It is examples like that of Ricardo Montero that show us how small initiatives in our community can make a difference nationwide, setting a precedent for the aspects of children's education that father's are being held responsible for nationwide. it is important to highlight father's efforts like that of Mr. Montero to fight the cultural precedents in society which have perpetuated a belief in the replaceability of fathers in our homes. As leaders like Mr. Montero exemplify, there is no value to the impact father's can make in our community if they have the proper support system, like partnering their efforts with programs that organizations like EDUcación Para Nuestro FUTURO help sponsor. 

The National Fatherhood Initiative is right in that, “One of the more important developments in American society in recent years has been the growth of awareness of the importance of responsible fatherhood to the well-being and proper development of children and to the health of the society as a whole.”

*Father Facts™ 5 summarizes important research findings and trends concerning the negative consequences of father absence, the positive impact of father involvement, and the current demographics of American family structure.

When asked as to what inspires him to continue giving back to your community in this extraordinary way, Ricardo answered this with one word, superación. Like all parents he wants better things for his kids. He has struggled so much to make sense of how the education system works in the US, so he wants to help make this information more easily accessible to other parents. He wants Latino students to excel. He believes that the future is in their hands. Ricardo says, what motivates me most is my desire to wake parents up and encourage them to get involved in their child’s education.

As a father, how do you balance work as well as family time. To fight this issue, Ricardo combines family time with school activities. The Garden Day community service project was a perfect example of how he made a few hours go a long way. He and his wife were fixing the up the grounds of Campbell School where his middle son attends and where he serves as a PTA member. It turns out that his eldest son was also there volunteering as an ELP student. This interweaving of family time with serving the community has become a common practice for his family. When their schedules become too hectic and he needs to work late, he divides up responsibilities with his wife. She may attend certain school meetings on his behalf so that they stay in the loop. There are times when Ricardo finds that he needs to make tough decisions. For example, to help out during Garden Day, he gave up a few hours of paid work. He doesn’t always have the liberty to do this (particularly when work is scarce), but this time he weighed the benefits of working versus spending a morning giving back to Campbell alongside his family. Today, he felt that spending time with his family helping his community was where he needed to be. Ricardo Allows us to see that a little bit really goes a long way if the willingness is there. 

When asked if he has any advice for other father's in getting involved with their children's education, Ricardo explains, that there is a saying in spanish.., "papa involucrado en la educación de un hijo tiene un hijo exitoso.’ The best thing we can do for our kids is to encourage them to go to school. Working hard and giving them money is not enough because that can be taken away at any time. Educating our children is the best way we can prepare them, especially in the US because everything is so competitive here. A degree is necessary to be successful. The best thing we can do is to make sure they are focused on the goal of graduating college. Parents can sometimes become so focused on working to provide for their families that they miss out on supporting their children’s education. Parents need to be there front and center with their kids schooling.

Mr. Montero believes that when parents don’t understand the education system, they stay away or they assume that it’s the same as back in their home countries. If parents are not informed and involved, they won’t be able to do support their children’s education. For example, many parents are told that in middle school or high school is when parents should start keeping close tabs on grades. This isn’t true. Parent involvement is important starting in the elementary grades. Parents need to ask for help. We often fail to advocate for our kids. Not knowing the language is an real obstacle but it shouldn’t be a reason to stay away. We need to advocate for our students AND our students need to see us speaking up for them, challenging teachers, administrators. When students see parents advocating for their education, they will be inspired to advocate for themselves.

We are thankful to Mr. Ricardo Montero for sharing his enlightening words through this interview. We hope that his efforts inspire fathers in our community to follow his example and further involve themselves in their children's education.