1994 – Son: Dad, my class teacher SCOLDED me for not doing homework.
Dad: God bless her!
2014 – Son: Dad, my class teacher SCOLDED me for not doing homework.
Dad: God DAMN her!!
Why is it that parents today don’t understand what they did perfectly well till a decade or two ago? Why have parents suddenly metamorphed from a teacher’s patient listener to the child’s friend-in-mischief? What went wrong?
In days of yore, parents were generally kept in loop about what’s happening at school, whether through interactions with teachers at school meets or through tête-à-tête with the child about school happenings, etc. Parents considered teachers equal, if not above or more.
However, with the advent of technology, children reduced talks with parents & started squandering time on smartphones & Tabs and parents started getting engrossed in their work which was now on their fingertips; while teachers continued with their same old way of teaching process like nothing had changed.
The result? A supramental gap between teachers & parents.
But hey, it’s not the end!! We can still mend things together. Here are a few things you can do with the assurance of getting those misled parents on your side again:
- First things first: Explain to parents that strictness on both parent’s & teacher’s side can alone impact the child positively.
- Connect With Them Where They Already Are: Everybody is busy. Majority of the Communication takes place digitally. It has become very important for teachers to Connect with their students & parents where their attention is, i.e., on their phones.
- In-depth Dissection: Show parents the specific problems attached with their child & offer customized solutions. Sounding a li’l corporate, eh?!!
- Blow the Horn Early: Let parents of the child know of any pertinent concern much in advance while it’s still in the nascent stage.
- Keeping Parents in Loop: Make it a point to update parents early about school events & initiatives and also give them a hawk’s eye view, via photos & visuals, into all the wonderful things the school does for their children!
- Communicate, don’t promulgate: When it comes to reminders to late fee payers, stop scolding the child & inform the parents directly. Let them know that you’re not spreading the word & embarrassing the child because….you care!
- Value Feedbacks: Allot parents a platform wherein they can submit their queries/feedbacks to which you may reply too.
Yes, you’d now say that it’s all easier said than done but it’s really easy & safe to do all this now, without even exchanging your personal contact detail with parents, through a free app getting very popular amongst teachers called Arch – The Way, available on Android, Windows, iOS & Web.
Teachers using it have found it really effective in bringing their students & parents closer to them than ever before on the path of progress. Teachers of one of the best IB School, Victorious Kidss Educares, Pune say: ‘We are using Arch from last 8 months. We have received a very good feedback from our parents. Now a days tools like Arch The Way have become a very good medium of communication between parent and school. It is very user friendly for parents as well as for us. Thank you for introducing Arch to us.’
Do you communicate with parents regularly? Which tools do you use? We recommend you to try the tool above & we’re sure this new academic session would bring you much more joy than the preceding ones!
