Although most students don’t care about Back to School Night, students don’t realize that Back to School Night is an opportunity to foster communication between themselves and their parents.

The fact is, the small glimpse of teachers and classes that parents get at Back to School Night is enough context to hold a real conversation. The obligatory “How was your day, honey?” which ordinarily elicits a one-word “fine” could easily be forgone in exchange of legitimate dialogue.

Students don’t realize that their parents are invaluable resources, seeing as they’ve probably gone through the same experiences. Although a great number of parents are immigrants, they’ve gone to school, they’ve taken the same classes, and they’ve learned the same material. A great majority have a college education, hence enabling them to help with their child’s academic pursuits. Despite language differences, math and science are universal dialects, and hard work and study leading to academic success works no matter what country it’s learned in.

It’s a shame that most students don’t take the opportunity to discuss their academic lives with their parents when the latter are so full of advice concerning the topic.

Back to School Night is the ideal pathway to this kind of communication-rich relationship between students and parents.