I was just reading the post on why parents don't ever read anything, and I have a similar rant.

Why don't parents come in and see what their kids are up to at dance class? I teach 9 - 13 year olds, and I've only ever met 2 out of the 11 parents. I cannot fathom why they wouldn't want to come in at least once per month and see what their child has learned, meet me, see what they're paying for, be able to ask questions...is 9 a magical age when suddenly parents don't come out of the car to walk them in or out of the studio????

I've told some of my kids how lucky they are to have involved parents. I want them to know that even though they may think its annoying to have mom or dad be in the waiting room constantly, that actually it shows interest and care for them. These parents are absolutely the minority.

If your kid played sports, you'd go and see them play in games. Why wouldn't you come into the dance studio once in a while and see how far the dance has come along??? Argh...

We are going to make changes to our policies, and one of the biggest changes will be ALL parents have to come into the studio to pick up the dancers.


It's crazy that you don't know who are the kids parents or guardians. We will know all of our students parents, and if they go with the program things will be much easier.

90% of my senior and junior parents dont ever come in and just like the post i made about parents reading these are the ones that come in and say they didnt know. My three children are involved in many activites dance included but I always find time to go see what they are doing and go to all the parent meetings.

I have found that in my experience, most kids parents stop coming in to the studio when either A: they start taking multiple classes and are there for hours at a time, B: Have learned to tie their own shoes and can open their own bottle of water or C: they have a younger child they are bring with them and don't want the fuss of getting everyone and everything out of the car. I do have parents that I never met even after multiple years with the same student. Others I see every week.

I suppose this is one thing I don't get too concerned with. It keeps the lobby less busy and chatty, and it surely cuts down on the picky things parents have time to think about while they are sitting in the studio. Granted, it is nice to meet them once in a while to make sure they are up to date with everything, and to make sure the students are leaving with the right person, but it opens up alot more doors for more issues when they all stay for the class period.

Another view on this is some classes parents are not really that welcome, they can be a bit of a distraction. I guess most feel that if they can be out of the way, then thats exactly where they should be. My wee girl does a few classes and I know the teachers for Ballet and majorettes prefer all parents to just go, but the disco (which I teach) well the way I see it , if parents want to stay then stay. I just dont like problem parents, or distractions.(but have to say parents Ive met have been no problem at all, but when I danced problem parents were rife in one of my schools and the teacher had to ban all parents altogether!!)
Ruth
xxx

I am a former dancer with a dance degree & a former studio owner. I am now a parent of 4 children with a 7 yr. old dancer & a 3 yr. old that will start dance next year. I have been on both sides of this issue as a teacher and a parent. Currently, I do drop my 7yr. old off at the door of her dance school and haven't been able to spend as much time being able to stay and observe her class. I have other kids who are in multiple activites, we have to worry about homework & dinner, my daughter is in back to back classes for 2 hours, making it a long time to sit in the lobby & keep her brothers & sister under control, and just the fact of loading kids in & out of car seats for multiple trips in the car each day is exhausting. There is also the factor of waiting for dad to arrive home from work to help and you also have those occasional times of the month that us as parents have meetings & appointments etc...
So, I wouldn't take it personally that parents of your students don't care about seeing how their child is doing in their dance classes. Most of the time it is just the fact that life is so busy.

I think we need to seperate dropping in and picking up the students and staying the entire class. We are not asking for the parents to stay each week for the entire length of the class. We are simple asking for the parents to show there faces every once in awhile.

I feel some of you need to seperate the two, none of us want to have all of our students parents staring each week. But show your face introduce yourself, let us know who Susie's mom is.

I used to walk to dance school. I started when I was 11 and it was a few blocks from my house. Except for sign up, my parents did not come into the school for a long time. I had all the payments, etc. Later on, when they became involved with ballroom dance at the school, they were more involved but it was my activity, I was happy and it was well-known in our area. Therefore, I cannot say a word about parents coming in or not. As long as they pay their bills and kids come to class, on time, in correct attire and follow the rules, that is all that matters to me.

thadancer wrote:

I think we need to seperate dropping in and picking up the students and staying the entire class. We are not asking for the parents to stay each week for the entire length of the class. We are simple asking for the parents to show there faces every once in awhile.

This is exactly what I mean. From September to today, I still don't know who some parents are...really? I don't want them to watch all the time - just have a clue. I understand that everyone is busy and multi-tasking and all of that...I guess I'll just have to get over it.

I have had a few parents over the year that I rarely saw, just at sign up, recital, etc. They always paid the bills, always followed the rules and read all of the handouts. It actually never dawned on me to consider that I did not see them. I had too many kids and classes running to get to know everyone. My reception staff knew many of them more than me, once my school grew. There was no way that I could keep up with all of those parents.

We don't allow kids to leave the building without a parent, this is because outside the door is the car park and also some industrial factories. No way are we allowing kids to walk out where there are cars driving around, there is no place to drop off and pick up. They must park and walk into the building to both drop them off and pick them up.

I personally have no problem with parents staying and watching the whole class. They arent in the room but can view easily and see whats going on. Where the parents are they are easily accessable if the kid really needs them but far enough away so that they are generally out of the kids minds when they are in class.

I am proud of the work we do in the studio and proud of the way all out teachers work with the kids. It also helps as far as legalities, I don't believe in a closed door policy because I want parents to see that what we do is always safe and appropriate.

We can think of this as dance class every week being "practice" and the recital or other performances as "the big game" (in reference to the sports comparison from the 1st post).

I agree, parents should be more involved but in the same breath, I don't want them coming in, watching over my shoulder every week. We need to be careful what we wish for because as well know, parents can be a huge P.I.A.!

We have parent visitation 2x a year, which parents are encouraged to attend. To be honest, when I was growing up, I didn't want my parents to come to my dance class because I didn't want them to see me making mistakes, etc. I much rather liked showing off at the recital , jmo.