Parental Involvement in a school is imperative and we have read that it is a huge influence on the effectiveness of a school, but involving the entire community, that is something that bridges gaps of misunderstanding and mistrust.
Why can a school not be the center of community, a conduit for promoting activism, understanding, and pride? It can, but it takes a serious commitment by all staff involved. That is not something that a handful of teachers can accomplish on their own. At my school, we have teachers volunteer to put on community events after school, tutor on Saturday’s, and go out into the community to put on different events with our students. It is an amazing thing to see. They do it without asking to be compensated in anyway. They just do it because they have the opportunity to do so, administration sets that expectation (not a requirement), and everyone goes along because that is the norm at our school. I have never seen anything like it until I became a part of this staff three years ago.
It is a double-edged blessing because the more parents and the community are involved in your school the more scrutiny a teacher is going to receive. You just have to be a professional and back up what you do with research and experience. Involve parents in the problem solving process makes them a partner in what goes on in your class. I have found that some criticism I have received has been constructive and sometimes the criticism is not so constructive. Sometimes a parent is blowing off steam and venting frustrations. That is okay. I don’t take it personally. I would rather have someone inside the tent peeing outside than someone outside the tent peeing in.
The idea of getting the community involved in your school in any way possible is to break down walls, open lines of communication, and ultimately build bridges. Your community is going to make investments of some type somewhere, why not make it your school.
