Maintaining Ongoing Communication Between Families and School
It is important to remember that most teachers really care about the students that they teach, devote long hours to their jobs, and often feel overwhelmed by the immensity of their task. Similarly, most parents do all that they can to insure that their children receive an appropriate education and are well-prepared for their future lives.
However, what often gets lost in teacher-parent communication is a sense of perspective, and that is why open, continual, and sensitive discussion between educators and families is so essential. Educators need to ask what families really want for their children, what their dreams for their children truly are, and then listen to their answers. Parents need to recognize that teachers, just like themselves, cannot do everything; that teachers are often very willing to individualize programs, but may not know how to adapt a specific activity, or are unsure they have the resources to do so. If this is the case, a parent can be a teacher's greatest ally in ensuring that the teacher gets the training and support that he/she needs.
Parents and teachers working together can move mountains
- provided they first agree on the mountain they want to move! A caring,
committed teacher, equipped with the needed skills and resources, can provide
experiences that can change a child's life forever; and a parent, given
the opportunity to work with the teacher, is the teacher's best and
most enduring partner.
This book has been about working together - parents, general and special educators, and administrators - to enable each of our children to reach their dreams. This is the common calling, and the common duty, of all those who work with children and youth, that we teach them the values to choose dreams worth having, and the discipline, commitment and competence to achieve them.
