When I read through this chapter, I couldn’t help but think of Paul Gorski.  One quote in particular that made me reminisce on his speech was…

“Poor parents and wealthy parents share the exact same assumption about schools:  “The school’s job is to see that my child succeeds.”  Where parents differ is in the kind of critique and empowerment that they bring to their relationship with the school.  Wealthly parents have enormous social capital and leverage, and they believe that they are entitled to use it.  Schools respond to them.  Poor parents, for a multitude of reasons, do not have that sense of empowerment and entitlement, and it makes little sense to equate the respectful “distance” they keep as not caring.  The result may be a school view that parents don’t care about education and a parent view that schools don’t care about kids.” (p.385)

First of all how can one assume that poor parents and wealthy parents share he EXACT same assumption about schools?  Just because a lot of poor parents aren’t as involved in the school community as we think they should be does not mean that they don’t want to be.  I agree with the author that “it makes little sense to equate the respectful “distance” they (poor parents) keep as not caring”.  I have been guilty myself of assuming that they don’t want to be involved or don’t care.  The truth is that I don’t know why poor parents are not involved.  Is it because the parents cannot find the time because they are too busy working two jobs to make ends meet?  Is it because they are ashamed because their own education level does not go beyond eighth grade?  Is it because they don’t care?  I’m not saying any of these statements are or are not true, the truth is I do not know and assuming does not help.  I believe that we as educators (as Paul Gorski put it) need to provide every opportunity we possibly can to invite parents into the schools and get them involved in the school community.  If we want parents to feel truly welcomed then we can never stop trying to get them involved.  I work at a school with low SES.  The majority of our students are on free or reduced lunch.  This year I have changed my outlook on the parents I serve.  I have tried to accommodate each parent when scheduling conferences, even providing an opportunity “after hours” on the phone if needed.  I know a lot of my parents work around the clock so I adjust my way of thinking to be accommodating to them.  I try to treat ALL parents the way that I want to be treated as a parent.  When my son goes to school, I will not be able to be as involved as I would like to be in his classroom because I am a teacher myself and my hours will be the same as his.  The bright side is that there are a number of ways to get involved.  Some parents just make sure that they’re children are doing their homework or bringing in items requested by the teacher.  Some parents make certain that their child shows up to school on time everyday.  I think that if we want the community of our school to include parents, then we have to simply change our way of thinking and make every effort to never stop trying to include and get EVERY parent (regardless of SES) involved (no matter in what way) in their child’s education!