November 30, 2009 9:20 pm

Communication And Schools

Lauren Mylo has an article in the Hour about the communication issues facing Norwalk. There’s some interesting comments about poverty, and non english speaking parents. I pause for a moment to wonder, when in history as there ever been rich immigrants landing ashore the American Dream Inc. It’s like there’s a collective brain freeze when it comes to communication.

First, most people who function here, no matter what language is spoken, have a phone. Yes, phone numbers may change, but if schools made it easy for parents to update contact info, then they might find it easy to keep in contact. Long before cell phones and the internet, and even touch tone princess phones, there were rotary dial phones and teachers and administrative people used them to contact parents. And I bet those teachers of yesteryear knew which method reached which family the best. Back then, multi-modal communication was the norm.

And I’m pretty sure back in the day they weren’t fluent in Italian, German, Greek and Irish, er, ya know the accented version. Okay, have you ever watched Veronica Guerin? I did and had to flick on the subtitles just to follow what was being said. But I digress. And what happened back then was pretty simple, the school person would speak English slowly and somehow communication would happen.

In general by mastering a few simple words in multiple languages you can learn to communicate the essense, as in your kid is in trouble at school. Behold:

ENGLISH	SPANISH	FRENCH	ITALIAN	GERMAN	TEENAGE
school	escuela	�cole	scuola	schule	skool
child	ni�o	enfant	bambino	kind	juvie
trouble	problema	probl�me	difficolt�	schwierigkeiten	troublematic
parent	progenitor	parent	parentado	eltern	rent
meeting	reuni�n	r�union	riunione	Sitzung	hookup

Once this important line of communication is established then more words can be added on and entire conversations can be had. As in two way, parents to schools, schools to parents. �It’s how we all learned English in the first place, but somehow Education Inc. forgot all about that. Instead we hear about newsletters. Newsletters? Newsletters about what? How about school to parent communication about the actual child? Oh but why single out schools for this generic form of communication. Ever actually read through the stuff your bank sends you? All that important info buried within … a newsletter. Things like, we’re going to charge you fees no matter what you actually do, but turn to page 642 to see how to opt out.

concerned

Never read the bank newsletter – always read the school one – maybe that’s one reason our country is in a financial crisis – oops!
Seriously though, I work in a different district and as easy as it sounds to you and me to communicate by phone, you would not believe how often people change their phones or have their phones disconnected for non-payment and it does not matter if it is landline, cell or both. And with caller ID, they simply do not answer when the school number comes up. And don’t say block it because they won’t answer that either. But I agree a school should never give up on communication because that can be the same as giving up on the child.
I had one child I had tried calling home and cell for weeks without luck – even mailed a letter home in an attempt to set up a meeting. Nothing. So I finally resorted to a 3X5 card sent with the child. Heard back the next day. Sent the card back and forth until we got a date and time and had a wonderful meeting. That was the system that worked for them. It was their system, not mine but it was effective. Schools have to be flexible. Communication isn’t a one size fits all.

turfgrrl

concerned: Love the story. That is the point, that there needs to be a whatever it takes attitude instead of pointing out all the why nots.

Also concerned

I truly enjoyed reading about the efforts made by “concerned” because that is the attitude that results in success. Note also his/her comment about the 3×5 index card: “It was their system, not mine, but it was effective. . .. Communication isn’t a one size fits all.” I think “concerned” is a very wise person to recognize that we shouldn’t assume that everyone else thinks the way we do; sometimes we need to find new ways.

Sometimes these new ways are as low tech as using index cards. Sometimes they mean going out into the community, closer to where the people live because as challenging as it may be for affluent parents to scoot in from jobs in NYC to get to an evening meeting at school in Norwalk, it is equally challenging for parents who live in Norwalk but who don’t have cars to get to school. I agree that a committed parent can often find a way to get to school, even without a car, but some cannot. I also believe that the visible effort of a school administration to go into the community sends a powerful message to the parents that the school staff value them enough that the staff are willing to make the extra effort to meet the parents.

My school has also made the effort to translate into Spanish and Creole on occasion because we are less fearful of “promoting a dual language society” than we are of failing to communicate effectively with as many parents as is possible.