As we approach parent conferences on October 23 and 24, I am reminded of an article I read in The New Yorker that told about rapid development in China and the impact on education, among other things. Entitled “The Wonder Years” by writer Peter Hessler, the piece tells of the changes in one family’s lifestyle because of the coming of “boom times.” Since there were no schools locally, once roads were built the Wei’s son had to board at an elementary school quite a distance away, returning home only on weekends.
When it came time for parent-teacher conferences, striking cultural differences between The Country School and this Chinese school are revealed. First, all the adults met the teacher at the same time. “If a child was doing poorly, everybody heard, and the shame provided additional motivation.” Second, at the conferences parents were provided with thirty page comprehensive written reports that evaluated and compared the child on every possible dimension – from height and weight to eyesight and lung capacity. Third, parents were expected to come with concrete assessments of their child’s performance, gleaned from those weekends at home and other communication with the teacher. Fourth, every child’s peers also offered assessments of each classmate’s prominent weaknesses. Fifth, every child judged his or her performance in numerous areas by completing blank faces with a variant of a smile, a straight line, or a frown.
Hessler notes that the instructor’s personalized evaluations were also extensive and notably positive. For instance, part of the teacher’s remarks stated, “Everybody loves you. Your thinking is very nimble and the teacher and the other students all admire you. But only if cleverness is combined with hard work will you have improvement.” The son’s education emphasized such pointed and direct assessment, a curriculum that stressed repetition and memorization, and an ethos that valued the good of the group and the development of a collective spirit.
While our conferences are quite different than the ones the Wei family experienced, many of the purposes are similar. We want parents to be clearly informed about their child’s overall progress, general development, and academic achievement, including significant strengths and notable challenges. We want to further forge a positive working relationship that addresses concerns in a proactive manner. We want to hear how you see things and what observations, joys, and concerns you might be noting. We want you to have a sense of how your child works with the group, relates to peers, and compares to developmental norms. We want you to know how we see his or her developing work habits and emerging study skills.
Parent conferences are great opportunities to step back and focus on your child. They give us all a chance to fine tune the best approach and the most important priorities. We look forward to the chance to get together – which, by the way, doesn’t ever have to wait until our structured conference times to happen. You are always welcome to call the office to set a time to discuss a matter that is on your mind.