It was “Back to School Night” tonight and it was a TOTAL BLAST! Well, no, not really. But it was fairly typical: the sound system didn’t work; the PTA president begged for money and volunteers; the principal introduced the staff; and the meeting room all the parents squeezed into was standing room only because there were so many folks there. And after that, we broke out into individual classrooms to talk with our children’s teachers and see the lesson plans for the coming year. In my daughter’s class I counted no less than 15 groups of parents for a 20 child 1st-grade class (about half were just moms and the rest were moms and dads both). Not too shabby. Involvement by 75% of the parents seems pretty good to me. It was the same last year for kindergarten.

Typical, right? Atypical? Does involvement decrease as the children get older? What’s normal at your school?

Comments

1. David on 2006-09-28 23:32:08 wrote: I’m sure involvement decreases as the children get older. You get more relaxed about everything. You’ve seen it before. But, for the first year at school, I would have expected almost 100% attendance from the families. You’d want the chance to check up on something new.

2. Phil on 2006-09-29 01:03:29 wrote: You forgot the tiny classroom chairs that they make the parents sit in. My son went to public school K through 2, and parental involvement did indeed go down those three years. Everybody’s gung-ho about their kids’ school at first, but maybe they get bored as it goes along. I don’t understand it.

3. amy on 2006-09-29 02:28:01 wrote: I’m a high school teacher. We have a population of about 325 kids in our 9-12 school. We had 40 sets or single parents show up. I had classes where there were NO parents there (classes that ranged from 20-30 students). I think once they get older….the parents don’t feel that they need to be as involved….which is sometimes VERY sad.

4. Larry on 2006-09-29 05:26:49 wrote: Wow! School started this late? Ours started in the second week in August. Mine are in 5th grade, as far as I know it the school figures out a way to get the parents into participating because the schedule a parent meeting, where they discuss about tuition. That wasn’t ever the reason I went, I thought it was necessary to meet and greet my kids’ teachers. I can understand elementary, but I think it is more the kids in middle school and up wanting to feel more independant and more-less not want their parents there and doubt it would be lack of involvement. I’m sure if their kids participated in extra-ciricular activities, the parents would be more supportive in that aspect.

5. john on 2006-09-29 08:42:18 wrote: (No, school started weeks ago. Back to School Night was about 4 weeks in.)

6. Lady S on 2006-09-30 07:16:45 wrote: At the K-6 school where I work, we have Open House about 3 weeks into school, which turns out to be the first 5-day week. We have 200 students in about 130 families. We probably had 100 parents total this year, and most were in couples. We see a decline in parental attendance as the children get older. Of course, I get no one, because who cares what is going on in the Tech Lab. But more disheartening was of the 11 kiddos I have for Literacy (90 minutes each day), I talked to one mom, and I stopped her. Last year I got 7 sets of parents for an 8 student group. Keep going, the teachers will love you.

7. Cory Verner on 2006-10-02 22:20:03 wrote: Our son is in 2nd grade at a charter school here in Escondido, CA. The charter school model is a little bit different. You are actually expected to “put in time” at the school (20 hrs. per year). Every missed hour costs you $10.00. I would say 90% percent showed up at our last meeting. I’m sure as the kids get older more people will just drop the $200! ;)

8. Lelia Katherine Thomas on 2006-10-03 04:00:52 wrote: I would definitely say that parental involvement decreases over the years. A few times when I was in high school I went with my parents to the parent-teacher conferences, because I could meet up with some of my friends who did the same. It was sad how few parents showed, and it was always the parents of children who were already doing well, who weren’t causing problems. Direct correlation? I’d say so. Made it really frustrating, because all that meant was the bad kids could and would continue to disrupt others in the classroom and ruin their own lives and education. I’m glad my parents went to most of the conferences, because often it puts you in good graces with the teacher. :P