I had many plans to educate the parents and guardians of Peninsula School this past year, but I am the one walking away with the biggest lessons! This is a short story of my ‘lessons learned’ and why I believe it’s vitally important for other parents to have similar experiences through volunteering and/or participating at Peninsula School.
In the Spring of 2020, as COVID was still emerging, I accepted the role of POP Education Coordinator for the 2020-2021 school year, a role responsible for bring education opportunities to our parents and guardians. I joined the POP Council with a storm of enthusiasm ready to launch over a dozen initiatives. To execute this vision, all I needed was to source a fleet of 20 volunteers and probably quit my full-time job. After much wonderful mentoring by Peninsula staff and POP Council teammates (and my wife), by the time school started in 2020, I winnowed my vision down to a solid shortlist:
Promotion of Common Ground Speaker Series (CGSS) events. For those that aren’t familiar with CGSS, in their own words: “[CGSS is] a parent education consortium on the San Francisco Peninsula. Each year we present a slate of cutting-edge speakers, topics, and special events designed to inform, engage and inspire our school communities.”
Creating, promoting, and facilitating small discussion groups with parents/guardians of Peninsula school following select CGSS live (Zoom) talks or based on select CGSS recorded video talks.
Capturing social and emotional learning insights and tips from our own staff and spreading them throughout the community.
Creating a unique POP Ed website to host a calendar of educational programs, drive membership of discussion groups, and post blogs summarizing CGSS talks and other content.
As I said, this was the shortlist, and I’m proud to say that we tried all of the above. It was challenging to get parents and guardians involved in many of the ideas this year, but we learned new things about volunteerism through these efforts. Here are some takeaways in hopes that future volunteers may benefit from my experience.
Fun is the hook. Most parenting talks and “self-help” talks are often by nature heavy, hard, and take energy to process. The last thing we wanted our parents to think was, “I should be doing ‘X’ better.” Honoring that need for enjoyment is important -- the Peninsula School value of play is just as important for adults!
Webinars allowed people to join conversations they would previously not be able to access. 2020 & 2021: the webinar years will likely change how we do virtual or hybrid events going forward. It will be interesting to see which organizations go hybrid for their events ‘post-COVID’ and I hope Peninsula’s POP group is amongst them!
Have a clear topic to drive inclusion in Zooms. Social ‘meet and greet’ Zooms or physically distanced events without a clear question and purpose often led to newcomers feeling alienated because they can’t relate to much of the conversations. Make sure you pose a relatable question or purpose — everyone can share opinions about an inclusive topic.
A lack of attendance does not mean a lack of interest. It can be hard to design a program, set it all up and have very few people engage with it. But, looking at that outcome a different way, it is also positive to know that people are practicing the healthy habit of prioritizing and an intimate event group can be powerful for those who are able to join.
As my time as POP ED coordinator for 2020-2021 comes to an end I am so very grateful to my fellow POPers and all other Peninsula people for the inspiration to dream, try and learn. While I pass on the baton, I hope I leave behind the beginnings of a new path for parent/ guardian education at Peninsula School that is purposeful, engaging, fun, and inclusive. The health of our community depends on parents/ guardians also willing to connect, go deeper, try things and learn themselves. I urge you to get involved and deepen your own education alongside your children.