Making Parent-Teacher Teams Work
Report: "Introduction to Parent-Teacher Teams," Morningside Heights, Inc., Spring 1968
Building Mutual Understanding Between Parents and Teachers
District 5's 1967 proposal for Parent-Teacher Teams was built, in part, on a preliminary program the district ran during the previous summer. On a volunteer basis, "parents and teachers joined workshops where they learned about the needs and abilities of children, learned how and what children are taught in school, and, most important of all, learned about each other." The process, according to the report that documented it in the spring of 1968, generated "mutual understanding" that laid the groundwork for parent-teacher cooperation in the classroom. One teacher who took part in the program told the organizers:
"Parents want the same thing that I want - each is looking out for the welfare of the child. I can’t wait to have a parent in my room.”
The New York Times sent reporter Olive Evans to observe these sessions in August of 1967, and she was impressed. In an article titled "Showing Parents How to Help," Evans reported:
"The experiment ... drawing from Negro, Puerto Rican, and white middle class neighborhoods, sought to bring parents and teachers together as equals, in an alliance to improve education."
These meetings gave prospective parent educators the opportunity to get to know one another and share their experiences as parents. While the program was primarily designed to bridge differences of class, race, and urban geography between teachers and parents, it also helped facilitated organizing among parents of many different backgrounds. One parent told organizers that the experience had changed her opinion of fellow mothers:
“I learned that all mothers care about their children - not just the white ones. I have become fare less bigoted against those who are not of my race. I’ve grown to like people regardless of their color or economic background."
Naomi Hill, the project director, affirmed these goals when she spoke to the Times. Stressing the need for "an open school system," Hill explained:
"If we give of ourselves so that they realize we are human, then the parents can open up."
One mother interviewed by Evans for the Times concurred, telling her:
"I used to be so afraid of the school. Now I know it is a friendly place."
These summer sessions demonstrated the power of bringing parents and teachers together, and encouraged the District to develop Parent-Teacher Teams. They also shaped the training processes that the District and TC developed for parents and teachers, together.
Challenges to Teamwork
The success of paraprofessional programs in education was never a given, as the following two clips describe. Teacher Lee Farber, who worked in Brooklyn and Queens, notes that many teachers feared the hiring of paraprofessionals would undermine their jobs, while paraprofessional Shelvy Young-Abrams describes a teacher who wanted nothing to do with her when she first started.
Lee Farber (teacher, Brooklyn): The paras became part of the UFT. There was a division ... And many teachers, many regular teachers, were very unhappy about the para program because they felt that that was a stepping stone to getting rid of teachers. That the paras would take over the role of the teacher and that would eliminate the need for having teachers.
Shelvy Young-Abrams (para, Lower East Side): My first experience in a classroom with a teacher, her name was Mrs. Perlman, I'll never forget. I came into the classroom. She did not want me to have anything to do with the children. No matter what I tried to do, "I'll do it. I'll do it." I used to go home with headaches. I mean it made me sick. I just couldn't understand. I would be sitting in the back of the classroom. The kid couldn't even come over and ask me a question. She was very protective of that classroom. And that happened, must have been about six months, seven months. I got tired of it. I went to the principal. I said, "You know, I don't like the way I'm being treated. I'm here to help. If I can't work with the children, and the kids can't come to me that makes a bad relationship in the classroom. The children understand that there's something going on between the two of us. There's only one person in that classroom, you listen to me. But I'm here. Mrs. Young is here." So I had a conversation with the principal, and I said, "I'm here to assist a teacher. I mean come on." So we had a conversation. He explained to her why I was there, and we ended up having the best working relationship in that classroom.
Building Teamwork into Training
In order to maintain the "mutual understanding" that these preliminary sessions created, District 5 built parent-teacher conversations into the training process. As the preliminary proposal described it, one hour (of four) every week would be set aside:
“To give these two people additional opportunity to structure viable role relationships, practices, and procedures in the classroom. This is quite important, since involving the parent at a higher level than the children contributes to the parent’s status and her creative involvement on a teamwork basis.”
In this respect, Parent-Teacher Teams was at the cutting edge of paraprofessional programs in these years. As local hiring expanded rapidly, many programs simply placed parent educators in classrooms and hoped for the best. Devoted training for paras was less common, and committed, paid, one-on-one time between paras and teachers was rare. However, as a study conducted at New York Ciy's Bank Street College of Education showed in 1968, such training seemed to make a significant impact on the functioning of paraprofessional programs. By devoting time to parent-teacher cooperation beyond the classroom, Parent-Teacher Teams aimed to maximize its impact in the classroom.