Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Teacher and parental engagement is a key to success



I am going to add principals and vice principals into the teacher category, since they too are part of the education process.

The following is a excerpt from article titled “Trusting Teachers Is a Means to Authentic Parent Engagement”:

“Would trusting teachers with authority to collectively make the decisions influencing school success be at odds with authentic parent engagement? I can see how, from some points of view, the language suggests yes. The idea can easily come off as "just trust the educators, and save the families from themselves!" Indeed, there are people who have, at first glance, interpreted the idea that way. But trusting teachers can be a promising means to parents becoming integral to the inner workings of our schools”.


Teaching in the U.S  is one of the only professions I can think of where non-professionals can or feel they can tell teachers what to do and what they are doing wrong. The respect it gets is not equal to what it should get (and that is as far as I will go on this subject less I digress too far).

Teachers however, are not perfect because they are human. Teachers also sometimes make the mistake of not authentically including parents into the education of children. Authentic to me does not mean simply telling the parents that: your children will learn this and this is what they are expected to learn, it means that teachers and parents are genuinely engaged in the curriculum, and in the outcomes throughout the school year. It means that parental concerns are addressed not dismissed, for the administrators it means that they are making every effort to meet with parents when requested. Administrators are often called to district meetings, but their primary role should be school leadership, working with the families and fostering positive relationships within the community. Districts let your administrators spend time on campus.


It really does take a village.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

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