Parents as Equal Partners

Fifteen years ago, as a beginning special education teacher, I was proud of the preparation I had received in developing individualized education programs (IEPs). I was confident in my knowledge and skills and spent long hours after school and on weekends creating detailed IEPs for my students. I conferenced extensively with parents regarding the wonderful educational programs I had created for their children. The parents nodded and smiled in agreement. In fact, they were quite appreciative. Yet they said little about their child. At the time, I was perplexed and often bewildered about their reluctance to contribute to the dialogue. In retrospect, how could they have responded any differently? I was the one monopolizing the discourse.