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Hi Donna, My mind is swimming with questions and ideas about your note on apathetic parents. It IS disappointing to put the work into a program and have fewer people than anticipated. Most of all, the children get disappointed if parents do not show. This is a particularly difficult year, I think, with many parents out of work. We also have lots of folks who find holidays painful for a variety of reasons - changes within the family, pressures of media to BEJOYFULANDMERRY, etc.
I wonder if you have had difficulty with getting parents to come for conferences also. YOu mention translating messages into Spanish. Is that a factor?
Well, enough of factors. The most direct contacts seem to work; e.g.,a phone call to share some nice thing that happened with a child or to check when someone is absent for more than a day, a little note to a parent who has done a service, a comment on a child's paper which requests a response. Room mothers can be helpful for publicity and getting volunteers, but people generally want the teacher.
This is a topeic of great interest to me. Am I saying anything that hits the mark?
You might be interested in the work of the HOMe=School Institute in Washington DC. Dorothy Rich has done a lot of training with teachers and parents for making the connections. Her most recent book is Megateaching, I think.
