Parent - Teacher Communication, page 3

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Helping Your Child's Teacher to Communicate / 3

Written Reports

1. Parents should know how many written reports they will receive each year and when they will receive them. Except in emergency situations, do not tolerate late reports; they are often an indication that the teacher is experiencing difficulties in other areas of life as well. It is essential that the class teacher is available to discuss the report after you receive it, and not already on vacation; for this reason, reports that arrive in July should be unacceptable.

2. The written report should hold no surprises! If the teacher tells you something in writing that she has not already conveyed to you orally (in a parent conference, by phone etc.), there has been a serious lapse in communication. Review the year with the teacher and discuss ways in which such a lapse can be prevented in the future.

3. Beware of the euphemisms and flowery language that can readily creep into a Waldorf report. Ask the teacher to write in clear English — if your child ever transfers to another school, these reports will be the only records available. What follows is a highly exaggerated version of the euphemistic extremes to which a teacher might go:

A Guide to the Generic Waldorf Report

or,

How To Read Between The Lines

The Report Its Interlinear Translation

Dear Mrs. Smith,

Your daughter Lana is a child of unusual depth, one who possesses an almost preternatural sense of the interplay of her own body and soul.

Dear Mrs. Smith,

Your daughter Lana is a severe hypochondriac.

On almost any occasion she is able to give a powerful outer expression to her innermost feelings and concerns.

She is also a crybaby.

Yet Lana also evinces a concern for her classmates. She often demonstrates a sensitive awareness of their needs, and doesn’t hesitate to share her insights with me.

And furthermore, Lana is the class tattle-tale.

In our fourth grade classwork, Lana’s approach keeps us all aware of the essential viability of the oral tradition. Lana steadfastly remains true to the direct and therefore quintessentially human transmission of information.

Lana refuses to read or write.

It is a joy to watch Lana work on her Main Lesson books. Every illustration is allowed to go through a true ripening period, for she will not proceed until she is certain that she has penetrated her creations with the fullness of her being.

Lana has never completed a single Main Lesson book.

It has been an especially satisfying experience to get together with you in our parent-teacher conferences. Your lively interest in all of the children in the class and your insights into their interrelationships with Lana have been stimulating and helpful.

As far as you are concerned, Lana’s problems are always the other children’s fault!

4. Before the school year begins, your child’s class teacher should send you an outline of the main lesson blocks that will be taught that year. At the year’s end, she should include a more detailed description of that material that was actually covered in those blocks. If any blocks were shortened, lengthened or left out altogether, an explanation should be provided.

5. At the conclusion of every block, it is helpful if the class teacher sends a short note to the parents telling them what was accomplished, what artistic activities accompanied the block, e.g. main lesson books, clay models, a performance, etc. Your child’s teacher can also say something about the block that is to come. Although such a letter may take no more than half an hour for the teacher to compose, it can provide a way for you to stimulate interesting, school-related conversations with your child.

For a more extensive discussion of many of these points, as well as their social ramifications, see my books What You Didn’t Learn in Teacher Training, and The Waldorf Teacher’s Survival Guide. They are published by Rudolf Steiner College Press, Fair Oaks, CA, and are available direct from the publisher or from the Sunbridge College Bookstore.