Dec 2007
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Cafés Bring Parents Together
By Michael Pastor and Leah Rosenkrantz
In the last month, we held a series of parent cafés for various grade levels. The parent cafés, piloted last spring, are an opportunity for parents to discuss their issues and concerns. We hope that by sharing some of the issues that were brought up in these cafes, we can contribute to extending these important conversations amongst the parent body.
The Lower School cafés employed an open format in which parents could bring up issues that were important to them and use each other, in addition to the school counselors, as valuable resources. In the 1st/2nd grade parent café, parents discussed a wide range of topics including negativity, sassiness, and externalizing blame. The 3rd/4th grade parent café discussed developmentally appropriate discipline for 9-10 year olds. Parents were hopeful that through sharing their issues and concerns, they could develop an understanding of agreed upon expectations for their children’s behavior.
Upper School cafés were held October 23 for 5th/6th grade parents and October 30 for 7th/8th grade parents. The main topic of discussion concerned our children's relationship to technology. The conversation raised issues about all our favorite toys, including iPods, video games, films, TV, cell phones and text messaging, and internet usage (especially IM and social networking sites). In the course of a wide-ranging discussion, a consensus emerged that parents would like the School to do more to educate students about the use and abuse of technology as well as provide parents with more information about technology and handling technology issues with their children.
In response to these important issues, Nancy Clark, Jason Stone, and Michael Pastor developed a plan for this year, which will include creating curriculum about technology for all Upper School students as part of an expanded health education/life skills instruction. We are also planning two parent education events for early in the new year. In addition, we will provide parents with relevant information about technology through our online publications. As they say in technology land: Stay tuned for further announcements.
The next Upper School Café will take place at the end of January.
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