In my more than 25 years in public and independent education, I’ve spent the majority of my time working directly with parents and their children.  Among the lessons I’ve learned:

• First, I have never worked with a parent who knowingly wanted to make a bad decision for his or her child.

• Second, parents truly want the best education for their child.

• Third, we only truly educate a student when the parent and the school are working together of the four C’s (a little different than the four cornerstones): caring, communication, common goals, and cooperation.

The greatest challenge is communication.  Gone are the days when parents leave a child at school and trust that the school will contact them if necessary.  Gone are the days when parents accept what we as educators decide simply because “we said so.”  I find today’s parents to be exceptionally bright and very tech-savvy.  They have high expectations, they require accountability, they demand communication, and most important, they want to be an active part of their child’s educational experience and school.  These changes in parenting require us to revisit many of the ways we do business.