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Home : 2001 : August : 26

SuperMom
By Julianne

I think you are right to wait to form your own opinion of this person. But, you do need to have a strategy in place for any parent who oversteps the bounds of parent involvement. Talk it over with your principal. Most
schools have some guidelines for parents visiting the classroom. Be sure yours does. If not, try to get something in writing before you have any problems. Our policy states that any visitors to our classroom must check in at the main office before going to their child's room. If they don't do it, we send them back to check in. This slows down the process and discourages them from coming

over at the drop of a hat to see what their child is doing, but keeps the door open for all parents to visit occasionally. Along with visitation guidelines, you may want to work out a phone policy and a homework policy that you can quote when a parent becomes overly involved. In our school we have a policy that says parents may only phone our rooms before and after school and for emergencies. An emergency is not defined, but you could define it if you have to. We talk to parents about homework on back to school night and again at parent/teacher conference time. We emphasize that homework is just practice and that we do not grade it the same way we grade work done in class. If we see a lot of parent involvement in homework we confront that parent and ask them to let their student do more of the work. We don't accuse them of doing it, just explain once again the value of the CHILD doing ALL the work.

Really, your principal and special ed. team are your first line of defense if things do turn sour. They need to help you deal with this child and the problems he has - at school and at home.