Parent-Teacher Conferences During the Work Day
A quarter of the school year has passed already, and, many parents are either looking forward to, or, bracing themselves for a parent-teacher conference.
At the risk of sounding discontented with my kids’ school, (I’m not, I love their school), another thing besides the lack of e-mail notification that bugs me is the fact that we have TWO half days off due to said conferences.
So, not only do we have to make childcare arrangements on these days (coming right out of a day off on 11-1), but, we also have to figure out a way to go back to school in the afternoon with all the kids in tow in order to do the conferences.
There is an option to reschedule your assigned times, and, the teachers are usually very flexible, but, I’m not wild about having to find three new times, and, the teachers probably aren’t either.
I think there ought to be one weekend half day, and, one weekday half day, but, beginning later in the day assigned to conferences. They should ask your preference, and, then attempt to schedule accordingly.
The conferences used to be on a Sunday, but, then no one was coming because of the NFL games. However, some of us need to do this on a weekend or evening.
Now, before you go all “but, teachers have lives, too” on me, remember, I’m married to a teacher. He has to leave his students to go to these conferences that are scheduled on a weekday afternoon.
Hey, that’s a different topic, how many of you dads take off work to attend parent teacher conferences? At our school, there’s probably more moms in attendance, but, not by much, there are a lot of dads as well.
Sure, no one wants to work on a weekend, or, an evening, but, many professions have to do so on occasion.
Yes, I know there’s overtime (or lack thereof) issues at stake in some instances, I don’t know how to solve that, I’m not in education, but, when a large percentage of the group you need to meet with is otherwise occupied during the weekday, something has got to change.
Tags: Career and Kids, parent-teacher-conference-timeRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Kids' School
8 opinions for Parent-Teacher Conferences During the Work Day
Meredith
Oct 30, 2007 at 11:27 am
The whole daytime-parent-conference is a result of negotiations from the teachers union. The trend has migrated from public to private schools, too.
My husband had to leave his own school conferences to come over to our son’s conference.
DBN
Oct 30, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I am just trying to figure out if I need to go for my three year old.
If parents really cared, they’d make it to the parent-teacher conferences
Oct 31, 2007 at 8:30 pm
[…] on the heels of our earlier discussion, there’s an interesting discussion afoot at the Guam Daily News about scheduling parent […]
carolyn
Nov 1, 2007 at 6:36 pm
In our school district, where I work and my children attend school, parent-teacher conference day is a holiday for kids. Teachers work from 1pm-8pm and actually meet with parents from 5-8. The rest of the time is work day for the teachers. We teachers try to be flexible, so if a parent needs to meet before 5, we accommodate their request. It seems to work fine, although we still have to make childcare arrangements for the time we are at work. Luckily, at 12 and 14, mine are old enough to stay home alone.
JayMonster
Nov 5, 2007 at 8:53 pm
When I was a kid, all parent-teacher conferences were held in the evening. School events were always held in the evening. PTA meetings were in the evening.
Now, so much is moving to the daytime, and I can’t help but wonder, who the heck can attend these things?
Ginny
Nov 6, 2007 at 10:42 am
Luckily, my husband is self employed and can usually make it to the conferences for elementary school which are held on a Monday as a scheduled day off. The high school’s are at night in a fieldhouse gym and even provides child care through the child development classes. And I have pretty good kids, but I still hate to go…but that wasn’t the topic, was it?
The Mommy Blogger
Nov 11, 2007 at 1:15 pm
My daughters school has 2 days for conferences but they are both in the evenings. Either the Tuesday or the Thursday from 6:30 to 8:00.
The other school she went to was 1 day and you could go from 1-3 or 6-8.
The Mommy Blogger
James
Nov 15, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The adult whining here is deafening. So you have to take a 1/2 day off of work to attend a conference about YOUR child’s education. And, double WAAHH, you have to be a parent and either watch them or arrange child care.
You’re on the right track with your last sentence “…something has go to change.” Answer: it’s your attitude.
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