#parent-teacher-communication

#parent-teacher-communication

Start with being completely honest with yourself: You do want to meddle. I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to, despite the word's negative connotation. So let's call it, instead, "get involved," which is a bit more neutral. To get involved, begin the conversation at the first rung on the school ladder: with his classroom teacher. (If a regularly scheduled parent/teacher conference is coming up soon, save it for then; if there's nothing on the horizon, contact the teacher and ask for a private meeting.)

While I understand the importance of advocating for your child, there is a time and a place for it. I never forgot that parent and always wondered if her incessant demands of the teacher worked out negatively for her child. To be honest, after witnessing her daily display of entitlement, I never wanted to approach a teacher at dismissal again. I stuck to emails, mostly.

When I was a middle school teacher, I thought the school principal was being unrealistic when he strongly encouraged all of his teachers to spend the month of September and the first weeks of October making short phone calls to their students' homes. "Catch your students doing something good, I don't care what it is, and call their parents and guardians to tell them about it," he said. And no, shooting off a quick email does not count, he also said.