How can teachers encourage parents to understand the parental role in their children’s education?

In 1998, I was teaching first grade in San Francisco. I commuted to school from Palo Alto, where I lived for a total of eleven years. I sent a proposal to the Palo Alto Daily News, a local newspaper, for a column called “Teacher Talk.”

They accepted my proposal. I wrote a weekly column for a total of four years.

My first “Teacher Talk” column, which appeared on September 3, 1998 in the Palo Alto Daily News. Note: the booklet mentioned at the end of this column is no longer available at that address. [photo by the author]