Day #5

This isn't a diary entry, as you can tell. However, I felt as though 6th grade Christeen could not answer this question. I have actually spoken to Mrs. Wallace* about parent involvement in her classroom. She states that it is extremely rare for parents to involve themselves in the curriculum she has planned for her students. She has tried many forms of contacting the parents including phone, email, snail mail and even facebook. However, she feels that you cannot make a parent interested in their child's education. The few times she has actually spoken to parents, she had interesting stories to tell. Few parents were interested to know how their child did and was grateful for Mrs. Wallace's* added effort to contact them. However, more often than not, parents didn't spend the time to talk about their child's grades or didn't even know they were taking a performing arts class to begin with. This reminds me of the 'Silence Dialogue.' Although Lisa Delpit referred to the unspoken dialogue as a sort of silent agreement not to argue about different races, I feel like there are many important things that are silenced just because of the absence of participants. Lisa Delpit states that eventually people of color just stopped trying because they feel as though they will never get passed the thick headed ways of the white people. I feel that its the same way with teachers. There are only one teacher for 25 students or more causing the parent ratio to double, sometimes triple, depending on the family situation. I feel as though teachers have given up. They have stopped trying to involve parents because its like talking to a white person about racism. Parents aren't adding their opinions to the school districts about THEIR child's education. Education is important. Some people dedicate their whole lives to improving our nations schools. If things aren't discussed, no one will ever know there is a problem. Silence doesn't solve any problems. It does however make the issue seem to disappear but it will never completely disappear. Only talking about the problem can make the possibility of solving the problem more solvable. As a teacher, I would love to have my parents involved as much as possible so they feel welcomed to talk to me about their children and what they are learning. However, I feel as though that is a dream all teachers have. But I've been blessed to see many forms of the nightmare that is the reality of education. Even if the kids are a joy to teach and they grow so much as little people over the year that you get to impress education upon them, it will still be hell to involve the parents. As the director of an elementary after school program, it is extremely important that I speak with the parents about transportation, the students progress and participation as well as performance details for the nights of the show. I have trouble speaking to the parents and have tried many methods including phone calls, facebook, and hand outs. Nothing seems to work. I only hope that this isn't a prediction on my future classrooms as a teacher.