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 The
Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From
Each Other
Author: Sara
Lawrence-Lightfoot (Random House, 288 pages, $24.95)
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
Interview: Conference Calls
Review by David
Ruenzel of Teacher Magazine, September 2003
Few occasions make teachers and parents more apprehensive than
the fall conference, during which they warily eye one another,
wondering what possible schemes are being hatched. In The
Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From
Each Other (Random House), Harvard education Professor Sara
Lawrence-Lightfoot explores the roots of this anxiety. Teachers
worry they'll be charged with not doing enough for the child,
while parents fret about hearing criticisms from someone who
doesn't yet know their kid. As a result, both parties too often
leave conferences feeling dissatisfied.
In her new book, Lawrence-Lightfoot—author of numerous volumes
on school- community relations—demonstrates how the
parent-teacher divide can be bridged, if not resolved, through
the stories of 10 female teachers who've been effective at this
kind of work. Their approaches vary, but the teachers are all
excellent listeners who glean from parents detailed views that
help them work more effectively with students in the classroom.
Reached by phone at Harvard, Lawrence-Lightfoot spoke about the
many misconceptions shared by teachers and parents, including
the idea that students should not be present at conferences.
For more of this review and a Q and A with the author,
click here.
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