Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to unleash the potential of every child in America

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ration between Families and Schools.</h2><p id="6e97"><i>A new educational system and model of schools could be designed to tap the immense potential of students’ families. Such a model would have parents deeply invested in their children’s school and provide a wealth of new resources for personalizing the educational experiences for all students.</i></p><p id="baa2">Although some districts and schools are striving to increase parent and family engagement — with some even dedicating staff to this — the current system makes it nearly impossible for parents and families to play any truly meaningful role in a student’s school-related learning. Like students, families are unique. Meaningful engagement, therefore, needs to be personalized for each student and family. Doing this in a system that relies on structure and sameness would be disruptive in most current schools.</p><p id="bad8">Instead, schools involve parents and families in ways that are generally controlled and predictable, outside the school day and outside the classroom (at least while instruction is being delivered). Schools often measure success through surveys of parents or attendance at parent-teacher conferences, but such measures don’t reflect real collaboration or contributions to student learning.</p><p id="b71c">This is unfortunate because there is incredible potential in engaging families. Collaborative parent and family engagement in the learning process — where parents are committed and invested in that process — would bring validity to the school’s instructional activities and the value of each student’s learning objectives. The parents, student, and school could collaborate in determining what the student should be learning and why, which would make all three full partners in guiding and mentoring the student toward meeting the learning objectives. The current model designates what will be learned and when, removing both the student and parents from this process.</p><p id="fd1c">Most parents would jump at the opportunity to substantially improve the learning, growth, and development of their child. However, they’ve been convinced it’s not their role and that they don’t have the necessary expertise, so they are content with a peripheral role in school.</p><p id="a156">Of course, many parents also face logistical challenges to being part of their child’s education. Jobs, health, other children, relatives, and numerous other situations may severely limit a parent’s availability. This exposes another shortcoming of our current school model: the inflexible schedule limits the times parents can be involved in school activities. A new model could account for these situations to ensure every parent has the best possible opportunities to be involved. A new model could also account for nonparent caregivers and students in unique situations without readily available caregivers.</p><h2 id="03e0">A lost wealth of resources</h2><p id="72d3">The current school model is also unable to tap the wealth of resources families could bring. Collectively, parents and other family members have an incredible breadth and depth of experiences and expertise. They have knowledge, skills, and wisdom that would contribute in untold ways to the growth and development of students

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in a school, but they are kept at a distance because they are not educators. This is like knowing how much information is available on the Internet but not having a search engine or map for accessing it. It exists but has little value except when you accidentally stumble across something worthwhile.</p><p id="5076">Under the current model, the typical approach to tapping the knowledge, skills, and experience of parents is sending them a letter or e-mail asking for volunteers at school; occasionally they’ll ask for specific skills or experience, but mostly they are seeking chaperones and people to make treats and perform other tasks that really only require time.</p><p id="7612">A new educational model could factor in this untapped resource by creating a network that connects the expertise or experiences of family members with those for whom it would have value. Whereas parents should collaborate in the overall learning for their children, they could also channel more specialized knowledge, skills, and experiences to select students who could benefit.</p><p id="e2de">This is also a cost-effective means of personalizing student learning. Currently, we limit what is taught in school in an effort to be efficient. One argument against personalized learning is that schools can’t afford to teach every student a different curriculum. That’s true. However, teaching students is the old factory model. The new model, which would be built on student learning, could allow students to acquire their learning in nearly any possible way, and that could include being connected with a member of another student’s family who has relevant knowledge, skills, and experiences.</p><p id="864e">Part 2 of this book explores in greater depth what this parent collaboration — both with their own children for overall learning and with other children for specialized learning — might look like and illustrates why it is completely possible in any community.</p><p id="a68f"><b>Continue with the next element of Know Power, Know Responsibility (Chapter 15), here:</b></p><div id="133c" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/know-power-know-responsibility-how-to-unleash-the-potential-of-every-child-in-america-bd7e1baa0153"> <div> <div> <h2>Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to unleash the potential of every child in America</h2> <div><h3>Part 1 — Chapter 15: A Dozen More Reasons</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*S9lGoloC55rVs0YN4CVggA.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="2b7e"><i>Kevin Miller is a Boomer who joined the Army during the Cold War and continues to serve. He has spent 30-plus years working in K-12 education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant and is now on a mission to reinvent our school model. His book <b>Know Power, Know Responsibility</b> provides the imperatives for a complete redesign of schools and the way to get there. See his website <a href="http://knowresponsibility.com/">knowresponsibility.com</a> to learn more.</i></p></article></body>

Part 1 — Chapter 14: Collaboration between Families and Schools

Photo by Author

Author’s Note: I will publish additional sections of this book each week. You can find previously posted sections at the following links: Note to Parents of School-Age Children and Note to Teachers, School Administrators, and Other School Staff here; Introduction here; Prologues Part 1 and 2 here; Prologues Part 3 and 4 here; Part 1-Chapters 0 and 1 here; Chapter 2 here; Chapter 3 here; Chapter 4 here; Chapters 5 and 6 here; Chapter 7 here, Chapter 8 here, Chapter 9 here, Chapter 10 here, Chapter 11 here, Chapter 12 here, and Chapter 13 here.

CHAPTER 14 — Collaboration between Families and Schools.

A new educational system and model of schools could be designed to tap the immense potential of students’ families. Such a model would have parents deeply invested in their children’s school and provide a wealth of new resources for personalizing the educational experiences for all students.

Although some districts and schools are striving to increase parent and family engagement — with some even dedicating staff to this — the current system makes it nearly impossible for parents and families to play any truly meaningful role in a student’s school-related learning. Like students, families are unique. Meaningful engagement, therefore, needs to be personalized for each student and family. Doing this in a system that relies on structure and sameness would be disruptive in most current schools.

Instead, schools involve parents and families in ways that are generally controlled and predictable, outside the school day and outside the classroom (at least while instruction is being delivered). Schools often measure success through surveys of parents or attendance at parent-teacher conferences, but such measures don’t reflect real collaboration or contributions to student learning.

This is unfortunate because there is incredible potential in engaging families. Collaborative parent and family engagement in the learning process — where parents are committed and invested in that process — would bring validity to the school’s instructional activities and the value of each student’s learning objectives. The parents, student, and school could collaborate in determining what the student should be learning and why, which would make all three full partners in guiding and mentoring the student toward meeting the learning objectives. The current model designates what will be learned and when, removing both the student and parents from this process.

Most parents would jump at the opportunity to substantially improve the learning, growth, and development of their child. However, they’ve been convinced it’s not their role and that they don’t have the necessary expertise, so they are content with a peripheral role in school.

Of course, many parents also face logistical challenges to being part of their child’s education. Jobs, health, other children, relatives, and numerous other situations may severely limit a parent’s availability. This exposes another shortcoming of our current school model: the inflexible schedule limits the times parents can be involved in school activities. A new model could account for these situations to ensure every parent has the best possible opportunities to be involved. A new model could also account for nonparent caregivers and students in unique situations without readily available caregivers.

A lost wealth of resources

The current school model is also unable to tap the wealth of resources families could bring. Collectively, parents and other family members have an incredible breadth and depth of experiences and expertise. They have knowledge, skills, and wisdom that would contribute in untold ways to the growth and development of students in a school, but they are kept at a distance because they are not educators. This is like knowing how much information is available on the Internet but not having a search engine or map for accessing it. It exists but has little value except when you accidentally stumble across something worthwhile.

Under the current model, the typical approach to tapping the knowledge, skills, and experience of parents is sending them a letter or e-mail asking for volunteers at school; occasionally they’ll ask for specific skills or experience, but mostly they are seeking chaperones and people to make treats and perform other tasks that really only require time.

A new educational model could factor in this untapped resource by creating a network that connects the expertise or experiences of family members with those for whom it would have value. Whereas parents should collaborate in the overall learning for their children, they could also channel more specialized knowledge, skills, and experiences to select students who could benefit.

This is also a cost-effective means of personalizing student learning. Currently, we limit what is taught in school in an effort to be efficient. One argument against personalized learning is that schools can’t afford to teach every student a different curriculum. That’s true. However, teaching students is the old factory model. The new model, which would be built on student learning, could allow students to acquire their learning in nearly any possible way, and that could include being connected with a member of another student’s family who has relevant knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Part 2 of this book explores in greater depth what this parent collaboration — both with their own children for overall learning and with other children for specialized learning — might look like and illustrates why it is completely possible in any community.

Continue with the next element of Know Power, Know Responsibility (Chapter 15), here:

Kevin Miller is a Boomer who joined the Army during the Cold War and continues to serve. He has spent 30-plus years working in K-12 education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant and is now on a mission to reinvent our school model. His book Know Power, Know Responsibility provides the imperatives for a complete redesign of schools and the way to get there. See his website knowresponsibility.com to learn more.