“Why Don't You Mark the Errors on My Child's Papers?”—Explaining Yourself Theoretically and Professionally

How did you do on your spelling test this week? Do you know your math facts? Do you usually win when you play Around the World at school? What book are you reading right now?

These are examples of questions people ask elementary-aged children when they attempt to start conversations with them about school. They are questions related to what many remember as important experiences in school, what is done there, how to rank your own intelligence status with others, and even how to compare yourself to others in a never-ending plethora of ways. Questions like these point to the idea that schools are places where people learn information, but schools are also places where students learn social constructs. Not surprisingly, many consider it a teacher's job to rank and sort students; but a teacher's ranking and sorting encourages other interested parties to do the same. In school settings, students soon learn to judge themselves. But, even more importantly, many parents (who are not at school day after day like their children) worry endlessly about how their offspring are performing in school as well, perhaps in the hopes of finding out if their children will indeed succeed in the world and become someone special. This chapter looks at ways parents and public audiences—all with lots of experience as students—shape instruction in schools. One reason the parent and public scripts inform various other school scripts—teacher and even administrative scripts especially—is that teachers and schools sometimes revert to school ways similar to the ways they were taught as children—often moving back to the basics, if you will. This feels comfortable and right to parents, just and proper as the way for school to proceed. In this chapter, I will discuss some common parent and public scripts and how teachers can help parents understand current research and best practices in literacy.