Parental engagement in schools is an interesting topic for me because I had never before put much thought into it. I had never considered the difficulties that might come with enrolling your child in a new school system particularly if you aren't fluent in that school sytems language.

The readings this week as well as the guest speakers highlighted many of the challenges faced by minority parents. We have spent so much time talking about students this semester I had not given much thought to the problems that parents face. While parents in low income communities are often forced to engage with their community out of a need for advocacy they often remain unengaged with their child's education. This is not out of apathy of course but a result of cultural barriers. Many parents simply don't know what is expected of them in the American school system. Others wish to be engaged but are limited by linguistic barriers or a lack of cooperation from the school system like we have heard about from the guest speakers and in Collignon's article.

These articles have given me much to think about how I will try to connect with parents when I become a teacher. While parents need to meet teachers half way, I believe it is our responsibility to reach out because many parents might not even know that we are available to talk.