Conferences are Here

 Ah... Parent/teacher conferences. What fun event to have.

Do not misunderstand me. I am all for reviewing students' performance on a regular basis other than at grading time. I really do prefer to see to issues as they occur rather than reacting to issues after they have happened.

My reluctance is not with the students. It is with some of the parents. It always seems as though there are a few parents that are not interested in helping their student to learn but to blame someone or something for why they are not. I find this most prevalent in advanced student families.

High achievers are usually performance driven. The driver can be the student themselves or an outside source like a parent. Both sources can be problematic. A student's drive is usually good unless they have unreasonably high or unforgiving standards for themselves. A parent is a different matter.

Parents tend to drive their student without realizing the undo pressure they are applying to them. They are not usually doing so maliciously though. They believe they are simply encouraging them to perform at their best. I get it. I do. Sometimes though, a student is only a “C” student where “A's” and “B's” are a rarity with no regard to how hard they work or how much they study. Some parents are not willing to accept that their student is “average.” That does not mean they are not at their best. Getting some parents to accept that is the challenge.

PT Conferences are not for showing what is wrong but to give a status report. They are for encouraging the student to work steadily and honestly while enlisting the parents in the education process by identifying the students strong and weak points and recognizing their student's performance levels. After all, stressing to a student they must achieve above average grades when their best is average only serves to discourage them and lower their performance, All parties must help them achieve their best whatever level that may be.

It is not all bad. ;-) Placing parents with their students helps me to understand the students better.