Preparing for a School Conference

It seems strange, yet it is often the case, that Mrs. J (who is a model of competence and self-assurance at her job or running her home) or Mr. J (who is a pillar of strength and confidence at his place of business) can turn into masses of quivering jelly when faced with the prospect of a parent-teacher conference about their child.

• What can be done to lessen the trauma? Happily, many techniques for making the parent-teacher conference a valuable, rewarding, even relaxing experience do exist.
• How you feet about your child's teacher is certainly going to spill over into the conference, and it is best to get your thinking straight before the meeting.
• This is a professional, one who has been trained to teach children. As such, she deserves your respect although you must never lose sight of the fact that she is also a human being and, therefore, susceptible to the same human errors and frailties as you.
• Although you are convinced-and rightly so-that no one knows your child as well as you do, you should remember that the teacher spends 6-7 hours daily, week in and week out, with your youngster and probably knows him pretty well-better, in fact, than you suspect she does.
• Teachers would rather give a positive than a negative report on a child. They really would! The reason for this is obvious. It reflects favorably on their teaching abilities and reinforces feelings of worth and competence.
• The teacher is sacrificing some of her own free time to meet with you. (Rare is die conference that is held during school hours.) Home and family and all that they involve will probably be awaiting her attention after she has finished talking with you. Therefore, it is important that the conference not be unduly prolonged with non-essentials such as descriptions of your other children, your job, et cetera. She will truly appreciate your honest endeavor to respect her time and stay on target.
• Your attitude toward the teacher is most likely based in part on things your child has told you. It's wise to bear in mind the familiar quote from the teacher who said, "If you promise not to believe any of Johnny's wild stories about what I do at school, I'll promise not to believe any of his wild stories about what you do at home. " Make up your own mind about this person from what you see and hear."

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