Parent Education
Note: For most Parent Education events and meetings there will a morning session, which will be held in-person in the gazebo on campus, and an evening session, which will be held virtually on Zoom.
In order to help our parents, students, and teachers work together as a “family unit,” we offer a Parent Education program that spans the Oak Grove experience from 1st grade through 12th grade. Parent Education events are led by teachers as well as outside professionals, covering topics like Growth Mindset, social media wellness, college readiness, inquiry-based dialogue, diversity & equity, teen sexuality, and more. In addition, the program emphasizes building relationships and support networks among parents, teachers, and community members.
Our Current Parent Ed Workshop
Our first Parent Education workshop for this year is framed around electronics use and smartphones. Parents will have an opportunity to share their family media plan and discuss various approaches to electronics use. We will also explore recommendations on appropriate and safe technology use from a variety of sources. For parents of older students, we will discuss the roles that social media, gaming, and smartphone use play in our children’s lives. Here are some questions that may come up in the discussion:
- To what extent do you model appropriate electronics use around your children? Do you and your partner agree on what constitutes “appropriate” use?
- How is your child’s experience different from your own childhood due to social media, ubiquitous screens, and smartphones?
- When is the best age for your child to get a smartphone, or another internet-connected device?
- If your child already has a device, what mechanisms have you put into place to make sure your child is using it safely?
- How much time a day does your child spend on a screen? Does his/her behavior change after spending time online?
- How does social media affect your own sense of self-worth and your feelings of anxiety?
- What strategies have you implemented in the home to encourage face-to-face interaction?
Time and date: Thursday 9/23/2021,
In-person Session: 8:30 to 9:30 am in the Gazebo. For currently enrolled families.
Zoom Session: 7:00 to 8:00 pm. Open to the Public: Invite your friends; Space is Unlimited!
Recommended reading: We will frame the discussion with some excerpts from the following articles and documents. Feel free to read the articles if you have the chance or even if you aren’t able to attend the workshop:
Oak Grove School Technology Policy
The Atlantic: The Dangers of Distracted Parenting
NYTimes: This Is Our Chance to Pull Teenagers Out of the Smartphone Trap
Common Sense Media: Device Contract Guidelines
Our Parent Education program takes a two-pronged approach
First, the program is designed to support parents in raising children and adolescents through workshops on subjects such as child development, communication strategies, harm prevention, and academic support. As students advance to the secondary level, we also include sessions on college readiness and the transition into adulthood. The second goal of the program is to build relationships and support networks among parents, teachers, and community members. Oak Grove is a close-knit community, and we seek to create a healthy dialogue between staff and families in order to best serve the needs of our students.
You can refer to the button above to see the current Parent Education schedule.
On February 11, 1974, the day the school was officially announced, Oak Grove School founder J. Krishnamurti said:
And this school here, we have been discussing with the teachers, with the parents, and with the architects for the last two years. This school is entirely different from the other schools in India and England. Here the parents are involved in it, which is a new kind of experiment because if the children are going to be different then parents must also be different, otherwise there is a contradiction between the child and the parents, and there will be conflict between them. So to avoid all that we thought it would be right that the parents as well as the teachers and the students work together as a family unit.”
Living Education: Self-Discovery
Blog, News, Parent Education, Parent PerspectiveMarch 31, 2019 by Christina Sbarra Self-Discovery: Making Space for What Really Counts The recent college admissions scandal, dubbed Varsity Blues, hit the news just a few days before the release of Turning the Tide II, the second installment of a report on the college admissions process from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common Project. As if part of a […]
Talking to your Child about Sex and Sexuality
Blog, Parent EducationTobi Jo Greene of The Empowerment Workshop joined some Oak Grove parents a few weeks ago for a discussion on how to have healthy and productive conversations with children and adolescents about sex and sexuality. Here are a few of the key points from the discussion: How do I start conversations about sex and relationships […]
On Implementing a Growth Mindset in the Home
Blog, Parent Education, Parent UpdateThank you to those of you who were able to attend our Parent Education workshop on implementing Growth Mindset practices in your household. It was wonderful to see such a dedicated group of parents working together to discuss what actions and language will best help their children to embrace a culture of effort and perseverance. […]
Adult Learning Environment at Oak Grove
Blog, Parent Education, Parent UpdateA school is a place for learning, and not just for our students. It includes an active learning environment for the adults, too. In addition to an emphasis on inquiry and self-reflection, which in and of itself supports a culture of learning, we also set aside time in our regular schedule for professional development, shared […]
Friendship in Early Childhood
Blog, Parent Education, Parent UpdateIn early childhood, children are developing skills at school to help build a strong foundation for cooperative social play. During early childhood, kids actively seek ways to assert their own identities and to find ways to be powerful. Unfortunately, because of their developmental level, young children often don’t know how to make themselves feel more […]
Communicating with Children
Blog, Parent Education, Parent UpdateBy Will Hornblower Across the Oak Grove campus, parents and staff have been discussing strategies to improve the way that adults connect and communicate with children. Over the course of three workshops, we brainstormed ways to help students develop resilience, autonomy, and rapport with adults. We started by posing a question to a gathering of […]