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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Parent Communication: TO vs WITH | Connected Principals

Parent Communication: TO vs WITH | Connected Principals:

Parent Communication: TO vs WITH



We must understand the difference bewtween communicating To and communicating WITH. Photo from http://bit.ly/pvuhJa

As our school moves to attempt to add another stream of communication to parents via SMS (text messaging), I have been asked – “how many ways do we need to communicate with parents?” Should parents not just try harder to stay informed of their child’s education?

My responses are twofold:

  1. We need to differentiate our parent communication so we meet families where they are. Each family has a varied level of involvement and engagement due to time availability, access to technology, and ability to exchange in dialogue. Some families have the cultural capital (non-financial social assets like time, money, confidence, etc) to engage in ongoing face-to-face dialogue with the principal, teachers and staff