What’s In It For Parents of Your School’s Students?

In today’s PK3-12 reality, virtually all parents are of the Millennial Generation, born between 1986 and 2005. Some demographers change those dates to make the periods shorter or longer based on significant events (such as ending at 2000 rather than the year 2005), but archeologists have a standard that a generation lasts about 20 years. That’s still an argument that holds water, because even though there are couples waiting until their 30’s to have children, there are still a number of teen pregnancies that balance the statistic out.

Before taking a look at the Millennials and what they’re looking for for their children, let’s take a closer look at Generation X, the ME Generation. It’s important to provide context.

Why?

Because school leaders treated this generation of parents like they treated the generation before it – the Baby Boomers – and then wondered why enrollments in faith-based schools started its historical nosedive.

Sure, changing demographics and rising costs had an impact, but it wasn’t “just” these two things. Demographics started to change in the 1970’s as jobs started to disappear from United States factories and shift to countries around the world. Transportation became more and more annoying, if not difficult, in the Northeast, with its mountains, winding roads, and snowfalls that historically created “snow days” for school. Of course, rather than changing the school year to be from Spring through the Fall when transportation would be easier and winter could be a time to celebrate the holidays and maintain family time, we still had schools that played football in the fall into the winter and basketball that picked up just in time for January blizzards. Of course, Catholic Schools Week was celebrated at the most opportune time of the year – the dead of winter – where most of the meticulously-planned events to honor parents and grandparents were cancelled do to the boiler in the school malfunctioning, or below-zero windchills for weeks on end.

It’s the way we’ve always done it, and that’s what makes it successful, right?

If so, then why do school still announce their closure just a few week after Catholic Schools Week? Tell me that doesn’t mess with a parental mindset.

In fact, school leaders in the recent past were so steeped in “the way we’ve always done it” that they missed needed to change how they dealt with a new generation of parents – Generation X.

Generation X is a curious generation. The need for instant gratification is a trait that many of these individuals share. They are apt to buy a product on credit, then pay for it over time – without the guarantee that they’ll be able to pay for it. This is a different characteristic from delayed gratification, a trait of the Baby Boomer generation. Boomers were more apt to save for a particular purchase. If they utilize credit, what they have saved is used for a down payment, so to speak, so that payments are manageable or are for a limited time. The Great and Silent Generation members were sacrificial, forgoing what they wanted in order to build a better life for their children, their family, their neighbors or members of their parish.

Generation X, “The ME Generation,” could be cited as the originators of the phrase, “What’s in it for me?”

While that could be viewed as a question which pervades today’s society in general, it’s quite easy for the rest of society to pick up on trait that is germane to a particular grouping of individuals. Since the PK3-16 educational community spans 19 years, and a “generation” spans a period of about 20 years, there are always two generations affected by the traits of a third generation. In this case, Baby Boomers were affected by Generation X when GenX started enrolling their children in schools settings, and the Millennials have been affected by Generation X as they continued to progress through the grade levels.

The majority of Generation X parents are now looking forward to becoming grandparents, or those who have children in school are in college. In fact, you’ll recall that there was an item in the new a number of years ago that came to light called “The Student Loan Crisis.” When did that start? When the first children of Generation X graduated, that then they discovered they were on the hook to pay for the loans they co-signed for when their children couldn’t find a job – even though they had degrees and honor cords from prestigious universities.

Several individuals who attended a presentation I gave several years ago questioned me about their school’s current parents and guardians. While they realized that most of them were members of Generation X, want instant gratification and action taken in response to situations, and see their children as reflections of themselves, they were a little distressed at the comments I made regarding parents as customers. Not so much that they were customers (since they’re paying the tuition for their children), but they questioned me about the parents desire to know “What’s in it for them?” This explains the phenomenon known as “Helicopter Parents.”

As for Millennial parents, they’re not Helicopters; they’re Snowplows – pushing all the obstacles out of the way so that their children succeed, since, like Generation X, their children are reflections of themselves. If a child is chided or makes a mistake, parents see that as a failure of parenting, rather than a part of the child’s process of learning.

Teachers and administrators wonder why some of today’s parents and guardians are so involved at the school, and why others aren’t and don’t seem to care. I contend that the latter group would be involved if they could be. They’re either working, involved in their own activities, transporting children to rehearsals or practices on the nights of PTA meetings, taking care of elderly family members, or, in some cases, are unable to be involved for legal reasons.

Similarly, school staff members are sometimes overwhelmed by the constant presence of some parents and guardians who feel they have a right to be involved precisely because they’re paying tuition, even though teachers sometimes wish these parents and guardians wouldn’t be so involved. Actually, they don’t have a right to be involved because they pay tuition; they have a right to be involved because they are the parent, and parents are the primary educator of the child. Parents and guardians are a very important part of the school community, and should be treated as such.

There are some schools that have examined this phenomenon, and have developed some strategies which encourage parents to be a vital part of the school community, but also allow teachers the space they need to provide the necessary classroom experience for children to achieve to their potential. One school had a computer literacy program for parents several years back, offering courses in Microsoft Office programs on certain weekday evenings and on Saturday mornings. Other schools have created a parent library, full of text resources on parenting and child health and development. A comfortable and quiet atmosphere is provided for the parent or guardian who would like to stay and read for a while after bringing their child to school in the morning.

Another way to have your parents feel involved as well as to invite other parents to your school to let them experience it is to hold a “Parent Day” on a Saturday. Start at 9 and end at 3, with four seminars during the day that parents can rotate to, or perhaps take some time to meet with a teacher or tour the school. Sessions on finances, parenting, time management and productivity, and social media awareness could be scheduled, with lunch provided from 11:30 until 1. Parents could attend just the morning session, just the afternoon, or for the whole day. Such an event makes your school more than just a school, positioning it as an asset to your local community. As you plan for the 26-27 school year, try scheduling this at some point as an experiment. If it takes off, it can be a signature activity of your school, contributing to your school’s “remarkability,” differentiating it from other educational offerings in the community. It might even be able to be sponsored, generating some development dollars!

But do it before any other school does. This way, you’ll be an innovator. If someone else does it first, and only then do you decide to jump on the bandwagon, you’ll be viewed as an imitator.