HaYidion: Cover of the Parents issue
The headline in the Forward reads: “The Jewish Mother Revisited: Goodbye, Mrs. Portnoy, Hello, Bad Mommy.” A forthcoming book is entitled Hell is Other Parents and Other Tales of Maternal Combustion. An article in the New Jersey Jewish Standard promotes “Helping Kids Thrive With the Coach Approach to Parenting.” On the parenting shelf of the public library sits Straight Talk About Your Child’s Mental Health: What to Do When Something Seems Wrong. Parenting in the Age of Anxiety is extremely stressful.
And dealing with parents as a school leader is also stressful. Their issues become your issues. When a friend of mine became a pediatrician years ago, I remarked, “You have to like kids a lot to become a pediatrician.” “No,” he replied, “you have to like mothers.” The same holds true for school leaders. While it may seem that our clients are our students, the reality is that dealing with parental matters probably consumes a great deal more of our time and energy.
But the partnership between schools and parents is what makes education work, and the more educated and enlightened school leaders are about the home side of the home/school equation, the stronger the partnership is. The current issue of HaYidion tackles the theme of parents head on. The articles are hard-hitting and packed with practical advice and recommendations in a wide range of arenas.
As we all begin the new school year as well as the year 5770, we believe that you will find this issue to be yet another that will be well-thumbed, referred to and recommended. Its theme is topical and vital, for as it says in Proverbs, “Children’s children are the crown of their elders, and the glory of children is their parents.” ♦
Dr. Barbara Davis is the Secretary of RAVSAK, Executive Editor of HaYidion and Head of School at the Syracuse Hebrew Day School in Dewitt, NY. Barbara can be reached at shds@twcny.rr.com.
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