post 3 prompt 5

I went into Mrs. Gagnon’s class one morning and she had the class set up nicely and had a nice organized list of parent’s names. Next to each name was a time.
She told me that there was a parent teacher conference the night before and that there was suppose to be twelve parents coming and only two parents came. The two parents that did come really didn’t need to come as there was no problem with their child’s work.
I know she was disappointed by the outcome of the parent teacher conference. I just feel like there is a lack of support from the parents to help the teacher do a better job at helping teach their child.
I can’t really say that the parents don’t care about their child and their education because they probably do. The real problem might be is lack of understanding. As mostly all these students are bilingual, I’m sure a lot of parents have difficulties speaking English.
This is why I think it is important that people should learn another language other than English because it will help the teachers communicate with parents. And this goes for other professions as well.
I want to relate this to Delpit. One of her proposed aspects of power states “there are codes or ruler for participating in power; that is; there is a “culture of power.” She explains how there are different ways of dealing with situations. There are different ways of talking, writing, dressing and interacting.
A lot of parents are from different culture and might not speak English they might feel intimidated and might not understand the reason for communicating with the teacher if they are not going to understand what he/she is saying. It is not easy for anyone to go somewhere where there language is not spoken and the culture is completely different from their own. That could have been the situation in Mrs. Gagnon’s case.
It is very important that a child’s parents interact with the teacher because it will help the child’s parents stay on the same page as the teacher. The parents will be able to help their child at home. I’m sure all parents want to know how their child is doing in school and are interested in what their child is learning.
I know very little Spanish and speak even less than of what I understand. I would like to learn more because I know; knowing a different language is very useful especially in the teaching profession because I got to deal with a lot of parents and not all will speak English. But if I were to have a parent teacher conference night I would have pamphlets in multi languages and have a translator if necessary so that all parents have an equal opportunity to learn how their child is progressing.