Reevaluating Back to School Night

After 24 years of attending Back to School Night at my kids’ schools, it’s taking more self-discipline to show up. The traditional parents’ night has changed over the decades, and not for the better.

I’m not even sure when I first noticed the shift. But in the earlier years, teachers spent most of their allotted time — admittedly, in the upper grades they’re given just 10 minutes per subject — previewing a year of learning. They skimmed the curriculum. Sometimes they lingered on a favorite topic or an important project. Some spoke lyrically about their long-term goals for our children — newfound confidence, the ability to work cooperatively with others, a lifelong love of reading.

These days, however, the talk more often is dominated by grading rubrics, class rules, point deductions for various classroom misdemeanors and preparation for the state’s standardized tests. At this year’s parent night at my daughter’s high-achieving Orange County high school, there were a couple of presentations so vague on the academics that it was difficult to know which class was being discussed. The teachers didn’t mention the curriculum or the value of learning the subject, though one gave a lengthy talk about the dire consequences of unexcused absences. Another finished early with her spiel about the number of days students would be given to make up missed work, so she asked for questions. She then seemed surprised and unprepared when asked what the students would learn this year.

How much of this is our fault as parents? Teachers weren’t the only ones who changed their focus over the years. If there were a FAQ section at back-to-school nights over the last 10 years, it surely would have been headed by “Do you give extra credit?” followed by interrogations about whether students would be graded on a curve. The state’s standardized tests have added another layer of deadening. At some point, parents started asking why our high-achieving district has rather low similar-schools rankings.

Still, there are teachers who take care of the administrative business and nonetheless manage to remind us that education should be about awakening the mind and heart. One dispensed with the organizational details within a minute, gave contact information for parents who might have more questions and then launched into an enthusiastic pitch about the value of learning both a foreign language and world culture. The English teacher handed out an easy-to-parse brochure she’d prepared for the boring basics — and bless her, it contained a FAQ section — and devoted most of her 10 minutes to an uplifting review of the wonderful classical and modern literature the students would read and analyze, urging parents to immerse themselves in a couple of the books as well. I think I will.

--Karin Klein