LORI HATHAWAY On (21 Jan 97) was overheard to say to DALE HILL
 Hey Lori....
 LH> However, when it comes to the younger student variety that Matt
 LH> and I work with (i.e.age 13 under)
 Just FYI...Matt Smith is not an educator of any student variety.  He
 is a lawyer specializing, he has said, in collections.
 LH> This just goes to say they accept placement of children after too
 LH> brief explanations, apathetically or financially accept the
 LH> control of where their child goes to school and then are furious
 LH> when their child has discipline or educational problems in school.
 LH> They are justified in some of this anger, but lack trust in
 LH> judgement from experts in the system.
 You seem to be saying two different things there... they are
 accepting placement of their children. based on what if not some
 degree of trust?
 Yes..parents become angry when the perception, rightly or wrongly, is
 that their child is being short changed or unfairly singled out.
 LH> Maybe this is something that the school system needs to
 LH> address.MEANING - be patient with explanations,
 There is no maybe about it.  Schools do an extremely poor job of
 communicating with parents and the community at large.  'THE' contact
 point for most parents is a teacher, if and when that teacher for
 whatever reason(s) is unable or unwilling to answer a question that
 sets the tone for all future interactions.  It is extremely bad
 practice and even worse PR for teachers, admins or school boards to
 project an image of "we know best and this is what we _are_ going to
 do".  I don't tell my doctor how to practice medicine but you can be
 sure I demand (nicely of course) an explanation of where he is going
 with any treatment plan he thinks the situation calls for...he
 doesn't have a problem with this.  I find it just too difficult to
 understand why so many educators assume an automatic defensive
 (adversarial?) posture when they are questioned about what they are
 doing and why.
 LH> contact the parents more frequently, home visits.
 In elementary school yes frequent contact is a good idea.  I exchange
 notes with my son's teacher all the time and have had 3 "not
 required" conferences so far this year.  It's a tougher nut than that
 when you get to the middle and high schools...too many kids ... to
 little time.  Fifty years ago home visits were not at all uncommon.
 When I was still in the school system at least one home visit before
 Thanksgiving was, while not a requirement, almost a necessity
 especially if I had a "new" kid. (Special Ed).
... Every person you meet knows something you don't. Learn!
--- PPoint 2.02
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