Arborland Montessori Children’s Academy, Fullerton, CA
It is a well known fact that positive and enthusiastic parental support is crucial in successful education of the child. The school can provide the best environment, state of the art materials and the finest teaching team, and still fail to achieve the goal of education without the complete confidence and support from the parent. This does not mean we expect the parent to actively help with instructions. It means that, we as the educators need to win the complete confidence and trust of the parent so the child is presented with a united front. Parental trust in the school is such an important tool and plays such a major role in education that it would be time well spent discussing how we may achieve that trust.
It would appear that trust and confidence comes only after a teacher has proved herself and has a track record. However, this is not always entirely true. There are several ways in which trust can be started very quickly, and the purpose of this article is to explore different ideas of how this may be achieved. If everyone plays an active part and makes a constructive contribution, you should be successful in achieving and maintaining an excellent trusting relationship with the parent body very soon in the school year.
Tips/Ideas:
1. Right from day one make a personal contact. Don’t let the parent be intimidated by you, be approachable and empathetic. Empathy does not mean becoming overfriendly, it means remaining professional, but conveying to the parent you will always be on ally and try to feel what they feel about their child, see and understand their point of view, even if you do not fully agree with it.
» Read more: Helping Parents to Become Allies in the Education Process
