We know that parent engagement matters enormously to the education of our nation's children. There are countless studies endorsing the influence of parents on things like individual student development, teacher insights to the child's nature, school site improvements, and even district innovations, expenditures, and governance. Yes, there is a great need for parents to be involved, but...
It is a process of ever-new negotiations and conclusions. There are new issues each month, and new players each year. The experienced parents leave with a wave of resignation and relief, and new parents arrive with their Kindergartners in tow - both with wide-eyed wonder of what awaits them.
Thus, this relationship between district and parents is kept both ever-new and out-of-step as newcomers lag behind the level of knowledge necessary to be a relevant and useful influence. Only when a few years have passed and the need for intervention becomes obvious enough to warrant an incursion do the parents then risk alienating their children by standing up and demanding better on their behalf. As the years roll along and new players step to the fore their relevance and usefulness increases but only creates good and useful change when both the parent groups and the district choose to work through their differences for the sake of improving the education of all students. Regrettably, there are no rules to govern this ever-new engagement and it is usually left in a state of frustrated disarray.
Only through an agreeable and respectable process can both sides be heard, be understood, and become effective as a teamed effort on behalf of all the students in the district. Too often, it is the parents who are too new to this process and their tact may seem lacking at the outset - participating from a place of confusion and frustration. Professional administrators and veteran teachers have been through these negotiations, incursions, oppositions, and discussions for many years and have seen the trend of their evolutions. In their experience, too much dissension without resolved solution occurs, creating a natural reticence to having hope for a healthy process. Parents who care, but are not well-informed about the full extent of what is important, legal, and already-been-tried, will struggle in their ignorance. Another factor is found in parents who may be inexperienced at community engagement as they often flounder in the choices of their influence; not seeing or knowing much more strategy than, "Should we discuss this or just fight against it?" Feeling ignorant can cause many parents to more easily choose the latter response.
It is entirely possible to create a legacy-based process of successful inclusion whereby parents are introduced to the engagement process in their first year, or even before. By educating parents (for the sake of their child's future) they can learn how to successfully:
In such a model, the community of inclusion begins as early as possible to reduce the lost years when good-thinking parents never get into the game. Veteran parents will have formed effective forums for ideas and questions to be heard where no one is ostracized because everyone has been deliberately and effectively apprenticed or mentored into the culture, roles, and practices of the group. The district will see the value of this inclusion and this mindful process of debate and elucidation, and support it with meeting locations, informed staff, and a centralized library of accurate information. There will be a dedicated two-way process of exchanging ideas, knowledge, and solution-based decisions.
Measuring the "befores and afters" of such a program's effectiveness can create historical context to encourage the future arguments for keeping to it. By creating well-defined and documented processes, even if there is a falling-off in the future for whatever reason, the groups beyond that can reach back and resurrect the once useful architecture, form it into something fresh and relevant for themselves, and start again.
Our nation was formed by the ratification of a Constitution that protects the rights of its people and establishes processes dedicated to fairness, equality, freedom, prosperity, and improvement. The allowance for amendments proves an incredible forethought toward such a system needing future improvements to maintain its fit and relevance for a changing, growing people. Any system of parent engagement would do well to review the wise and lasting examples of our nation's architects. We need parents to be well-informed, relevant, and strong advocates for improving our education system. However, without a constitutional perpetuity there is little or no likelihood for it to happen.
There Are No
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
for parents and school districts
It is a process of ever-new negotiations and conclusions. There are new issues each month, and new players each year. The experienced parents leave with a wave of resignation and relief, and new parents arrive with their Kindergartners in tow - both with wide-eyed wonder of what awaits them.
Thus, this relationship between district and parents is kept both ever-new and out-of-step as newcomers lag behind the level of knowledge necessary to be a relevant and useful influence. Only when a few years have passed and the need for intervention becomes obvious enough to warrant an incursion do the parents then risk alienating their children by standing up and demanding better on their behalf. As the years roll along and new players step to the fore their relevance and usefulness increases but only creates good and useful change when both the parent groups and the district choose to work through their differences for the sake of improving the education of all students. Regrettably, there are no rules to govern this ever-new engagement and it is usually left in a state of frustrated disarray.
Only through an agreeable and respectable process can both sides be heard, be understood, and become effective as a teamed effort on behalf of all the students in the district. Too often, it is the parents who are too new to this process and their tact may seem lacking at the outset - participating from a place of confusion and frustration. Professional administrators and veteran teachers have been through these negotiations, incursions, oppositions, and discussions for many years and have seen the trend of their evolutions. In their experience, too much dissension without resolved solution occurs, creating a natural reticence to having hope for a healthy process. Parents who care, but are not well-informed about the full extent of what is important, legal, and already-been-tried, will struggle in their ignorance. Another factor is found in parents who may be inexperienced at community engagement as they often flounder in the choices of their influence; not seeing or knowing much more strategy than, "Should we discuss this or just fight against it?" Feeling ignorant can cause many parents to more easily choose the latter response.
It is entirely possible to create a legacy-based process of successful inclusion whereby parents are introduced to the engagement process in their first year, or even before. By educating parents (for the sake of their child's future) they can learn how to successfully:
- Understand the issues upon the perpetual table
- Understand their role and needed influence
- Become party to the work of veteran parent participants
- Know how and when to evoke and take up a new cause
In such a model, the community of inclusion begins as early as possible to reduce the lost years when good-thinking parents never get into the game. Veteran parents will have formed effective forums for ideas and questions to be heard where no one is ostracized because everyone has been deliberately and effectively apprenticed or mentored into the culture, roles, and practices of the group. The district will see the value of this inclusion and this mindful process of debate and elucidation, and support it with meeting locations, informed staff, and a centralized library of accurate information. There will be a dedicated two-way process of exchanging ideas, knowledge, and solution-based decisions.
Measuring the "befores and afters" of such a program's effectiveness can create historical context to encourage the future arguments for keeping to it. By creating well-defined and documented processes, even if there is a falling-off in the future for whatever reason, the groups beyond that can reach back and resurrect the once useful architecture, form it into something fresh and relevant for themselves, and start again.
Our nation was formed by the ratification of a Constitution that protects the rights of its people and establishes processes dedicated to fairness, equality, freedom, prosperity, and improvement. The allowance for amendments proves an incredible forethought toward such a system needing future improvements to maintain its fit and relevance for a changing, growing people. Any system of parent engagement would do well to review the wise and lasting examples of our nation's architects. We need parents to be well-informed, relevant, and strong advocates for improving our education system. However, without a constitutional perpetuity there is little or no likelihood for it to happen.
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