Ten to Teen: Genuine, Personal Parent Engagement

By Cris Blackstone Principal, November/December 2016 I frequently hear teachers expressing the sentiment that we need to encourage the sharing of information with parents, rather than feeling we are being hounded for it. We are all familiar with so-called “helicopter parents,” who have gained the reputation for being overprotective and overinvolved—even at the middle level. Here I identify ways to enhance communication with those parents, while giving their adolescent children much needed autonomy.