The importance of a good relationship between family and school is recognized theoretically but it is not always reflected into the reality. Parents usually leave their children's education under teacher's responsibility, considering the school a place where their kids are safe and successfully guided.
Traditionally, the connection between school and families has been focused on the kids success. Fathers and mothers showed interest to know the teacher, his professional quality, and teachers only met the parents when the child's results were not as good as expected.
Despite all this, parents and teachers share a common aim: a proper education of the child. In order to reach that purpose, those two factors must interact to guarantee the stability and balance required in children’s and teenager’s formation.
The most difficult thing is not to make the parents understand the importance of that interactivity. The barrier/obstacle sometimes remains on the way each part understands the participation in that interactive encounter and how to do it.
Under my own experience working in a school in Tarragona and according to some experienced teachers I have talked with so far, we can find three kinds of parents:
Some parents only worry about their kids education in a social environment, they forget about their academic education and consider it a teacher's business. At the same time, they do not allow the teachers interfere in what they do at home or what should be done. Many teachers have to deal with that kind of parents and try to make them understand they are not right, but obviously it is not an easy task.
Sadly, some other parents do not care about their children education and what their teachers teach them or do with them. Those kinds of parents rarely attend the appointments or teachers+family meetings.
Fortunately the third group of parents really care about their children. They understand that teachers can get to know better their pupils through their parents, that they can see their kids progress in the school through a conversation with the teachers. Communication between parents, teachers and pupils is basic to establish an effective learning wether in the school or at home.
