The list of comments offered below is a representative sample of thoughts offered by hundreds of teachers in a 2004 survey sponsored by Your Child and conducted by EPIC-MRA. Teachers were asked to comment on their hopes and fears about parent-teacher communication. Not all teachers offered such comments. The remarks reflect a range of views, but they are not a scientific sample.
Teachers' comments:
- Most parents try to do the right thing by their children, but high school for many in my community is a scary place...nearly 25% did not finish high school and find it intimidating.
- I’ve had a web site and e-mail address posted for two years. Two parents have contacted me within that time...out of 240 students! As the kids get older, the parents seem to be less involved...but that’s a mistake, I think.
- It is imperative that we gain more access to communication with parents. Parents can be a school’s biggest ally. I don’t think that having school performance score cards is the way to go about it. There is too much negativity that comes out of the press about schools rather than showing the positive things that schools do for the community.
- Keep it brief...don’t be too specific...use visuals whenever possible...encourage...support...and pray for the best!
- I think our entire society is at fault for valuing things like glamour, wealth, material possessions, convenience, and violence, instead of family values, innocence, kindness, and service.
- Parents need to be more open to what teachers tell them. They can’t get defensive and say “not my child”. We get to know the students well and have a lot of experience. Please trust our professional (and personal) opinions. We know what we are doing.
- I thoroughly enjoy writing my weekly newsletter to my parents.
- I wish there was a way to convey to parents what a teacher really does. Because of the fact that all adults have been in school, I find they all think they know everything about schools.
- Whenever I have parents teach lessons, they always comment on “they don’t know how I do it,” and I often feel there is a new sense of patience and understanding from the parent that would contribute to better communication between the parent and the classroom teacher.
- Show me a child who has parental love and support and I see a successful child. Often when children do not go home to a loving, caring, supportive environment it is more difficult for them to be as successful as their potential. Parents, get behind your schools! Get involved and be involved. Every year the same parents are at the School Improvement Committee meetings. We need everyone so all children will do better in school.
- Parent-school contracts are only pieces of paper. They won’t guarantee any participation from the parents. A parent’s involvement must come from a genuine desire to help their child do their best. We need to find a way to change attitudes.
- When they try and we try, the student has so much going for him. It’s really the best chance we have, to teach as a team. I also think that the public thinks they know what teachers do because they were once students. That is like me saying I can be Mario Andretti because I can drive a car. The public needs to be aware of the pressures and what we do daily and vice-versa. I need to know all my parents constraints, schedules etc. so we can work together.
- Parents seem to want to “fix” everything for their children, even at the expense of actually learning a real-life lesson from the consequences!
- I feel if we as teachers put more effort into communicating positives with them communicating the negatives wouldn’t be so hard. Also, if we often have good things to say about their child they will know we care and hopefully support us in dealing with the negative things.
- Most parents aren’t bad parents; they’re uneducated and misinformed parents. Educate parents to be the adults and expect their children to respect, attend, and comply with their teachers. I believe you’d see our public school systems soar.
- The administration should lead the way.
- The more you communicate with parents, the better it is for the kids.
- Communication is the answer. Many parents who criticize schools never set foot in them during the school day.
- Keep the deep down conviction that a parent actually does care about their child.
- I make everything easy, accessible and available practically 24/7. They must use the resources available.
- We have to shout this message loud to parent.... “Talk to the teachers”. Parents are way too busy and we have to make them stop and participate in their child’s’ future.
- Policy makers assume that teachers should be “fixed”. I’d like to see another survey that gathers a broad range of suggestions for successful interactions with parents, which encourage more active engagement of parents with the school. I think that we scare parents off by approaching them as if we had better answers than they have.