AMS Home Visits

We believe that a great connection between school and family is vital to the success of our students. Especially in an under-resourced community, we feel that parents can be a great resource for our work and therefore we feel a heavy obligation to engage our parents.  One way to do this is to host an open house at the school, have the parents schlep here, have them arrange babysitters — have them make the effort. This would certainly be easy for the school. However, not only is this impersonal (principal speaks to 800 parents at once), but it seems to misplace the burden.

Simply put, if the School wants the relationship defined in a certain way then the School needs to make the effort.

By making the unusual effort of going to the homes, we are able to initiate the relationship with dialog as opposed to lecture.  We get to hear the families, get to hear their histories, and get to hear their hopes and dreams. We get to see the kid’s second grade awards and get to tell her that she can’t be late to school like she was in fifth grade. We get to give the child her first uniform, and then get to watch the parent beam with pride when the child models it for the first time. We get to meet the grandparents, the sisters, the cousins, the pets. We get to eat cookies and drink juice boxes because kids want to share their snacks with us at their home. We let our families know that they are important to us and that they are valued. There’s also a practical reason for home visits: you never know, but sometime this year a student might say “my dog ate my homework.” To which we can say: “Nice try, kid. I’ve been to your house — you don’t have a dog.”  A thing of beauty…