My chat with Amy De La Hunt this week brought up some fascinating emotions. While not all teachers respond in the same way to our children's education, we do become much more passionate (and critical) of it the closer they come to the age we actually teach. As a former teacher of high school seniors, I had little to say about the girls' schooling throughout their elementary years. As they approached middle school and high school? Well, that's more my area of expertise so it became harder to keep my mouth shut. Amy and I both struggle with this curse of expertise but we also greatly sympathize with educators who aren't just teaching our kids but everyone else's as well. Navigating these two roles takes up much of the conversation and you can hear the push and pull that I'd imagine many of us struggle with.
The book she helped create and edit through Parents as Teachers (Engaged: Building intentional partnerships with families) is a fascinating exploration of this very nuanced relationship. She explains how both sides are responsible for bringing value and how this partnership, when leveraged well, can be transformational for our kids.
Other resources mentioned:
The Intentional Partnerships podcast – We developed this while I was at Parents as Teachers and we were neck-deep in writing and editing the book “Engaged: Building Intentional Partnerships With Families.” The wonderfully insightful founder of Strong Fathers-Strong Families, Mike Hall, co-hosts it with Lindsey Shah, the book’s author.
National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement – NAFSCE works hard to advocate for all three key parties in this triangle. It was founded by a core group of researchers, but it also has a real-world understanding of how hard this work can be.
The Institute for Educational Leadership – IEL hosts the most dynamic and informative family engagement conference in the country, and I’m very happy that parents who attend are welcome as equal participants with the “experts” and educators.
“Engaged: Building Intentional Partnerships With Families” – The book was published by Parents as Teachers and is available on Amazon.