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 Parents and Teachers Working Together

The Sixth Grade Crisis

The Waldorf Home Companion Series

Helping Your Child's Teacher

to Communicate 

by Eugene Schwartz

         Although Waldorf schools are unique in “honoring the oral tradition” as a viable means of transmitting knowledge, they are not immune to the “communication problems” that are rampant in virtually every institution in our time.  What follows are some suggestions to ameliorate this problem, and to open up the conduits of conversation that must underlie every healthy parent/teacher relationship. 

            Most of your communication will be with your child’s class teacher.  Although, as your child goes up the grades, she will spend a lot of her class time with “specialist teachers,” e.g., in Handwork, Eurythmy, German, Orchestra, etc., it is the responsibility of the class teacher to be aware of your child’s progress in all of her classes, and it is he who will come to know your child and your family best.  Since Waldorf teachers also shoulder a lot of the school’s administrative responsibility, parents are sometimes unclear about whom to address when there are major problems.  Your school should provide you with a clear description of its “channels of communication.”

Parent Conferences 

1.      Parents and the class teacher should meet at least once a year; twice a year is good in first and second grades; much more frequently if there are difficulties. 

2.      In the course of the meeting, the class teacher should share with you: 

·        Main lesson books, form drawings, paintings (and, in later grades, compositions and written math work) done by your child.  She should be able to give you a picture of your child as it manifests in this work.  Make sure that the teacher insists that every child complete his main lesson book, and that specialist teachers follow suit: work left incomplete weakens the children’s will.

·        Samples of other children’s work, so that you can get a sense of your child’s work in the context of the whole class.

·        A clear description of your child’s progress in writing, reading and arithmetic (early grades) and, in later grades, a sense of your child’s progress in cognitive abilities (grasp of science phenomena; grasp of historical concepts, etc.).  Ask for concrete examples.

·        Problems and challenges faced by your child, and steps and you and the teacher can take to remediate them.  A date should be set at this meeting to review your child’s progress.

 3.      Be direct in your dealings with your child’s class teacher.  Don’t hold back a deep concern or justified criticism just because the teacher looks stressed, or tired, or ill, or overworked — Waldorf teachers are often all of the above!  As in other human interactions, the worst problems grow from those minor misunderstandings that are allowed to fester.   

4.      Where there are persistent tensions or misunderstandings between you and the class teacher, request the presence of a senior faculty member (faculty chair, College member, etc.) in the meeting. 

5.      You should request a short written memorandum of the meeting to be sent promptly to you; if you do not agree with the memo’s content, advise the teacher in writing. 

6.      Avoid “Parking Lot Meetings” with your child’s class teacher and do not stop to chat with him when you are delivering your child to school or coming to fetch your child at the day’s end!  At such times, the teacher is still responsible for his children, and he is attuned to their level of consciousness, not to the mindset required for an adult conversation.  The best meetings between parents and teachers are those that are scheduled and prepared in advance.

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