Listening to Parents: The Power of Community Walks
Summer has been a break from teaching, and I’m keeping busy. I am working part-time as Project Coordinator for Playstreets of Wonder, a partnership between the Free Library of Philadelphia and various Philadelphia organizations. One of the program goals is to stop the “summer slide” through fun, active literacy programming.
For over 50 years, the city of Philadelphia has identified streets as “Playstreets” for the summer; Parks and Recreation designate streets to shut down during specific hours each weekday, and lunch and snacks are provided for children. The program gives children a safe place to play over the summer. This is the first year that the Free Library has been a part of Playstreets and I have learned so much about the power of listening to the community.
Something the library does really well is getting out into communities that are lacking resources. These neighborhoods often get negative press and the streets are labeled as “dangerous” for various reasons. As the Playstreets were identified and the program started, I noticed that some of the street names sounded familiar. It took a bit to figure out where I had seen these street names before, and I realized that I’d seen them next to some of my students’ names - they lived on these streets. I had this “aha” moment of oh wow, what I’m doing this summer can be a valuable learning experience to bring back to my teaching job.
One of the most powerful quotes in Safir’s book is on page 152: “It’s hard to listen to parents if we’re stuck in a well-worn script about how ‘difficult’ it is to engage them.” Two frustrating statements I often hear at my school about students' parents/guardians are:
"I wish the adults were more engaged."
"The adults don’t seem to care about school."
But is this really true? I have not encountered any adult on the Playstreets that has given a vibe of “I don’t care about my child’s education.” In fact, even adults who don’t have children tell us how thrilled they are that we are giving out books and building literacy. Adults play games with us, they share childhood memories, and they are excited to expand their home libraries. Kids tell stories, talk about what they like to do over the summer, and teach us how to play their favorite games. No lack of engagement here.
Playstreets is a @PhilaParkandRec program that provides resources, like free nutritious meals and sports equipment, for blocks to temporarily shut down during the day and become safe places for kids to play during the summertime. pic.twitter.com/f5WbnnGyGb
— Jim Kenney (@PhillyMayor) August 22, 2018
Getting to know the community is a vital part of being an educator, especially in a school like mine, where most of the teachers don’t live in the same communities as the students. Stories of “dangerous” neighborhoods and “bad” streets often inundate the news; what we need to remember is that some students call these places home. What happens on those streets is everyday life, not just a sensationalized headline. What kind of message are we sending to our children when we label (out loud or in our heads) those neighborhoods as “dangerous”? To be certain, precautions are taken. There is a safety protocol in place for our Playstreets staff, and one reason why it’s in place is because of the (justified) wariness residents have of unknown people coming to their neighborhoods.
Every day is a community walk out on the Playstreets. We know where the best corner stores are, where places of worship are, and where to get the best Chinese food. We know who is in the hospital, what parents’ favorite childhood books were, and that some of the Playsteets have had Street Captains (the adult in charge of closing the road and providing meals) in the same family since the program was started.
This experience has given me a new perspective when interacting with families. If families at school seem disengaged from learning or “not invested”, I want to know why. As the rest of the chapter outlines, there are many ways to listen to families. Community walks are fantastic ways to help build strong, positive relationships between the school and families by learning firsthand about the neighborhoods our families call home.
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