Teacher Text: The Essential Conversation - What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other

The Essential Conversation - What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot analyzes the relationship between a child's parent(s) and teacher and discusses how to make this relationship productive and collaborative. The backdrop of Lawrence-Lightfoot's argument is the theory that both teachers and parents have emotional baggage regarding their own schooling experiences and that they bring this baggage to the table during parent-teacher conferences. In addition, Lawrence-Lightfoot also stresses that society's view of school as an institution to cure all that ails Americans - racism, sexism, classism - also casts a shadow on interactions between parents and teachers. While Lawrence-Lightfoot discusses both of these influences extensively, the primary focus of the text is to answer the question, How can the teacher-parent relationship be one that provides the foundation and supports for the child's success? By profiling several teachers who have a record of positive feedback from parents, Lawrence-Lightfoot provides several important strategies for teachers and parents to use not just at the semiannual parent-teacher conference, but throughout the whole school year.

I found this text to be both inspiring and useful when considering how to structure one's parent-teacher conferences and other interactions throughout the year. Lawrence-Lightfoot does an excellent job of emphasizing what parents want to hear at a parent-teacher conference, what teachers need to say, and how to bridge the divide between these two perspectives. The strategies she suggests for connecting with parents are not laid out in 1, 2, 3 fashion but folded into the text instead. This does not mean, however, that they are few and far between. I found myself underlining, starring, and bracketing something on almost every page. One of the suggestions was to have a sit down interview with parents at the beginning of the year in which the teacher listens to the parents talk about their child. Another strategy was to open a conference with an anecdote (as opposed to the usual platitudes). Lawrence-Lightfoot also fervently, and convincingly, argues that the child should be present at and preferably lead the conference.

While the book does have its slow points, it is, overall, a very thought provoking and useful text for thinking about how to build meaningful relationships between parents and teachers in the interest of the student at the intersection of this bond.

Lawrence-Lightfoot, S., (2004). The Essential Conversation. Boston: Twayne Publishers.