Welcome to St. Edmund's Academy

Parent Welcome Letter from William Kindler - September 10, 2007

WELCOME

 

Dear Parents,

WELCOME TO THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR!

At St. Edmund's Academy having parents and teachers work together as a team is an integral part of our mission, philosophy, and core values. What is also necessary for all of us to understand, however, is that educators and parents have different but compatible and cooperative roles to play in the schooling education of children.

As a parent you have laid the groundwork with your children in many areas. Their values, attitudes, and ability to work with adults and their peers are strongly affected by how they have been raised by you. You were their first teacher and remain their overall parent educator.

Once they come to school, an important shift occurs. It is the classroom teacher who assumes the heavy role as prime school educator. We accept this responsibility with joy, excitement, some trepidation at the enormity of the responsibility, and eagerness for the challenges. After all, it is what we have trained many years to do.

However, there are certain parameters that are very important to the schooling process---they are often invisible, but they do exist and teachers need you to understand and respect them.

  1. The classroom is the teacher's world. It is her/his professional home. You are welcome to participate, but we expect you to know and support the ground rules. It is the teacher who establishes the environment and the expectations. She/he expects that if you need to question those rules you do it with respect for her/his professional opinion and training. It is also so important that you take the time to talk with the teacher privately, away from younger, listening ears, or from other adults who are not involved in issues that concern your child. Be especially mindful of phone conversations when you think your child is listening.

  2. Please respect the teacher's time. Make an appointment for an extended conversation. Often a talk needs "just a minute" takes longer for a complete discussion and resolution of an issue. Walking into a classroom to talk just before school starts can be very distracting when the teacher is finalizing plans for the day's work interacting with children.

  3. Please respect class time. It is never appropriate to enter a classroom to talk to your youngster or to the teacher during class time. If you have a family emergency, please check in with office personnel who will provide timely attention in a discreet manner.

  4. Please bring your child to school on time and keep her/him in school except for necessary health appointments (which we hope will be kept to a minimum) or a family emergency. This indicates your respect for the educational experience and models good habits and a sense of responsibility to your children.

  5. When you have a question or concern, approach the teacher in a positive and constructive manner. Acknowledge what is working well for your child as well as expressing concerns when they occur.

  6. Try not to jump to conclusions. As much as we love our children, we know that they can misinterpret teacher instructions or special messages or be so busy thinking about other things that they can miss important directions. Sometimes they even lose important paperwork so you do not get your communications on time. Before challenging the teacher you may want to ask a question about an assignment in a way that acknowledges that you may not have all the facts, rather than assuming that you understand the teacher's intentions or alleged directions.

  7. Protect your trust relationship with the teacher. Be sure to support the teacher in conversation with others. Nothing is as destructive as "parking lot" gossip that can impact a teacher's reputation when the core of the problem might only be a misunderstanding between the student and the teacher or the parent. If you have concerns please share them first with the teacher and, if that is not productive, with the Associate Head of School or the Head of School. Negative conversations among parents may get communicated back to the teacher and cause a serious breach of trust between you and the teacher, and worse, does nothing to solve the problem if one exists.

Please remember, we all have the best interest of the children at heart. Our commitment to the healthy development of students is at the heart of our philosophy and curriculum. While we respect and seek parent input, it is the educator's responsibility to design and implement the curriculum. Thus we each have a critical role to play in the lives of our children. At this time of your child's life, you have asked us to assist you in their formal learning, which includes skill mastery in nine program areas, and formulating and practicing the core values fundamental to caring and responsible persons.

We enter the 60th Anniversary year filled with enthusiasm and commitment to strengthen the home-school partnership, which can only happen when mutual respect, mutual confidence, and mutual trust is shown by our words and actions.

I look forward to seeing you at the PTA 60th year Birthday Party on St. Lucy's field on Friday, September 14 at 4:00 p.m. and at the 60th Anniversary Cocktail party on Friday, September 28.

Yours in Peace and Gratitude,

William L. Kindler, Ph.D.
Head of School