Why Hospitals Don’t Have “Parent Council Meetings”
Posted: June 12th, 2012 | Author: Michael Goldstein | | 5 Comments »
If you don’t have your own children, make sure you watch the video below about Dads — it’s so darn true — and then let me explain the deal with pediatricians.
Typical conversation:
Doc says: I’m not going to talk to you about your kid. I don’t do that. But don’t worry. I will send home a letter about how he’s doing. You can read that. It has blood pressure, height, temp, blood test result, and physical exam data. Also I will write a comment. Probably “Participates Well in X-Ray.”
Parent: Hmm. That’s not exactly what I’m hoping for.
Doc: Well if you want to be a more involved parent, our hospital does have a Parent Council. You can advise us on things like: decor of the waiting room, what our office hours should be, even dress code of the nurses.
Parent: Huh?
Doc: You know, come to think of it, we always struggle to have enough parents show up for our hospital Parent Council meetings. I wonder why.
Oh wait. That is NOT a typical conversation that a parent has with a pediatrician. In fact, that conversation has never happened.
[I realize the limits of an analogy, btw. Doctors are not the same as teachers in 1,453 ways. Don't sweat the analogy. Thank you].
Instead, ponder:
Why is the basic notion of teachers not routinely conversing with parents, about THEIR KID, okay in our world?
My point isn’t to add on more stuff to the teacher day. Not. That.
My point is that frequent, proactive phone calls to parents seem like an essential part of good teaching. Not a bonus part of teaching.
I’d love to see it built into the teacher work day, even 15 minutes a day, like entering grades. Just gotta be done. Cut something else.
Sorry. Today’s provocation came by US Mail. I got a newsletter from a high-poverty district in MA (not Boston), one you’ve never heard of. Not sure how I got on their mailing list.
Anyway: The superintendent is on the front page, imploring parents to join some district “parent council.”
Hey Supe:
Let me save you some time. 97+% of your parents are not gonna show up for your meetings. And I’ll save you the time to troubleshoot why. It’s not the food. It’s not the parking. It’s not the day of week, or time of day. It’s not whether babysitting is available.
It’s that MOST parents want to talk about THEIR KID. Not about the whole freaking school. They talk to doctor about THEIR KID. They talk to dance teacher about THEIR KID.
I think it’s great for principals to engage/listen to the 3% of parents who do want to talk about the whole freaking school. I applaud it, love it, relish it, approve it.
But don’t make those parents — whether 1%, 3%, or 10% — the dominant part of your school’s parent communication strategy.
Actually, I’d love to be on a Parent Council that had any ACTUAL clout. Many parents in my (med-large urban district) often begin by going to lots of meetings. Gradually, over a year or two or three (or uh, 16?!) they begin to notice that parents often suggest the same sort of things.
They get the same “interested” looks and comments and then NOTHING changes. Or there are changes but they have nothing to do with the suggestions or in fact, run totally counter to them.
I know you said that you didn’t want problems with the doctor analogy — but heavens, I can’t think of a generally more boiler plate meeting. I mean, in a good year, my kids see their doctor once. For about 7-8 minutes. She asks the right questions and comments on the issues du jour and of their age, but she doesn’t know my kids!
Teachers, I’d agree, know kids far better than that. Or at least the kids they see at school (kids at home and kids at school can vary widely!) I’d be delighted with the occasional call, I guess. But mostly I’m good with a quick note or a phone call if there’s a problem or an issue. Or the chance for a conference once or twice a year.
I’d agree that having more time in the day dedicated solely to communicating with parents (especially if that took the form of a weekly newsletter from the classroom that is emailed or sent home with everyone) would be nice, but the quality of the academics being served up is far more my focus of interest.
I’m a middle school teacher and I agree with you 1000%. But how does it happen when teachers have 120 students in a year?
I completely agree that proactive phone calls home need to happen. The problem has always been tracking these calls… What number do I use to contact parents? Which parents have I not called? Which parents do I need a more positive ratio with? This is especially true with 120 kids.
That’s why I’m so excited to see http://www.techbydash.com, an iPhone app that tracks all of that and more! You can write comments down so you don’t foret what a call was for, you can save student contacts in a dedicated contacts group, and you can teach whether a call was positive, neutral, or negative.
Tech by Dash is the perfect example of technology that makes teaching life a lot easier.
Thanks Deb. Need to check that out. Or “have it checked out” – as I don’t have an iphone. Ray?
120 kids per year is no joke. Here’s a popular EdWeek column I enjoyed by TeacherKen (18o students) from a few years back.
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/06/23/tln_bernstein.html
Jen, yes, hear you loud and clear. Sounds like most parent councils — faux “involvement.”
Great blog. Glenn introduced me and I love eavesdropping. This parent engagement piece is my passion. So glad to see it come up here. And to see some practical ways that individuals are tackling the issue.
In order for family engagement to move beyond a side conversation and another thing that teachers need to figure out for themselves, it must also become foundational to how we lead schools (and teach aspiring teachers in schools of ed).
The importance of Family Engagement has been in my gut since I started in the field….and even more since I’ve become a mom of a school age child. But research backs up my gut- with links between family engagement and improved literacy growth in children, improved transitions into kindergarten, better social functioning and improved school behavior. Deep, warm, respectful, collaborative family engagement should be in every school’s mission, policies and protocols. If we are horrified by the achievement gap, worried about catching up our at risk kindergarteners who enter schools sometimes a year behind seat mates, then we need to use ALL our resources. And our families are a relatively low cost, impactful resource that we systemically ignore.
And I agree— parent councils ( and I would add- any one time stand alone event) are not going to cut it. We need to think bigger- convincing key educational leaders in our schools and districts that it matters, and then emphasizing the importance of a culture of engagement in our schools. Think- open doors, principals and teachers speaking informally with families at pick up and drop off, families getting direct communication from school about what kids are learning and how to expand this at home, school staff asking families what they need and want in order to support their kids’ education.
And when families are in our schools for one time events- these events need to be at convenient (maybe multiple?) times, provide linguistically appropriate services so that all our families are included, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, every experience that a family member has with the school should provide an explicit link to learning that can be continued outside of the school day. Maybe it’s a reminder about reading aloud to your child daily or modeling how to do it. Every interaction between school and families needs to loop parents into the goals the school has for its children. Make them shared goals. Because family engagement is not a one-time event. And our school systems need to start reflecting that at every level if we really care about educating our kids.