If you’re a parent, would you like it if your kid’s school gave you a grade on your child’s performance? Or if you had to fill out a form asking questions about how well you were preparing your kids for school?

In an effort to forge better communication between teachers and parents, some schools are sending parent report cards home to identify kids that are slipping through the cracks and need extra attention both at school and at home…

If a teacher notices that a kid isn’t doing their homework or doesn’t seem to be properly prepared for school, call the kid’s parents. Make sure the parents are showing up for parent-teacher conferences. Do the usual things to make sure the parents are involved. But sending home a checklist to ask if their kids are properly fed before they come to school? I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.

To be sure, the school administrators in Manchester shouldn’t be faulted for taking an interest in their students. But it seems like there’s a lot of wasted effort and energy in sending checklists for parents to fill out to defend their parenting skills.

Would it take much time for parents to fill out? Probably not. But the parents who have kids that need extra attention probably aren’t going to fill out those checklists anyway. And if the teachers and administrators aren’t seeing the warning signs of kids falling through the cracks, then they aren’t doing their jobs.

Source: MSNBC
http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/10/30/437321.aspx