What Parents Want?

After a long night of parent interviews, my enthusiasm to try and change the structure of how the students in my care learn was reinforced by feedback from parents.

The belief that it is OK for students to fail and make mistakes in order to progress was discussed. Many parents felt that as long as the expectations were communicated between the student, teacher and parent it was OK for teachers to challenge and engage students with their learning rather than rote learn content or try and achieve the highest mark possible with traditional, mass, mainstream chalk and talk.

One parent said "If something is not working, you need to fix it and then make it habitual for progress to happen". We finished the interview and the parent shook my hand saying "Keep on doing what you are doing. You have our support. I wish there were more teachers like you who take risks and challenge the system. Thats what we want our kids to aspire to no matter what their endeavours".