There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. That saying also applies to the educational process. Teaching a child requires the combined efforts of the student, the parents, the teachers, the guidance counselors and the administrators.

Parent-teacher conferences are important for various reasons and shouldn’t just be restricted to elementary school students. Guidance counselor Paula O’Shields summed this up perfectly: “Parent-teacher conferences are a good way to bring parents and students together with the teachers to communicate what is happening in the classroom.”

In recent years, a decrease in the number of parent conferences has occurred. There are not many conferences organized by the staff anymore. “Most times, the meetings are set up at parent’s request,” economics teacher Mark DeCourcy said.

English teacher Nancy Close said that the reason that she doesn’t have many parent-teacher conferences is because she can communicate mostly through email.

Teachers also use Infinite Campus, an online gradebook, to talk with parents of students. “Infinite Campus has caused a slight reduction in conferences because now parents can follow their child’s progress on a daily basis,” guidance counselor Colleen Petty said.

Close has nothing against meetings with parents. “It’s not that I don’t want to have conferences with parents,” Close said. “It all has to do with time.”

Time is an important factor to have during parent-teacher conferences, and not having the right amount will be ineffective for the meeting. Having little time with parents can cause teachers to be rushed, and they won’t be able to explain or fix a student’s situation or problem if there is one.

With the hectic schedules of teachers, it is easier and less time consuming to send out emails to parents and guardians.

This new reliance on internet-based communication may be trimming down teacher’s schedules, but is it helping or harming students?

According to art teacher Todd Little, the benefits of face-to-face meetings are clear. “Parent-teacher conferences can better help have all parties on the same page,” Little said. When teachers meet with the parent or guardian directly, there won’t be any miscommunications and any unanswered questions can be solved immediately.

So while some may point out that the meetings are too time consuming, the benefits of them– helping the student and involving parents in the learning process– outway the cost of the extra effort.

Parent-teacher conferences help parents discuss and connect to a child’s learning ability in different ways. During these meetings, parents can better address a child’s learning and behavioral problems. All of a student’s teachers can get together with the parents and discuss strategies and concepts to help a child learn, becoming the village everyone acknowledges is needed to better that student.

The teachers can also use this time to share information with parents that might not have been sent or cannot be sent through email. Conferences are a great way to share resources with parents and guardians. These resources can help a parent further reinforce concepts learned throughout the day.

These meetings show that a parent is actively and personally involved in their child’s academic life, and their involvement reaches past emails and grades on the computer screen.