Weekly Message from HOS 2025/11/17-2025/11/21
Dear Keystonians,
Happy Friday! I wanted to share with all of you the letter I sent to parents earlier this week, which contains the wonderful wisdom of Dr. Madeline Levine.
I have been deeply moved these past two days, watching our teachers and families (including students) come together in conversation. Thank you to everyone for the care and thoughtfulness you’ve brought to these conferences. This genuine partnership is what makes our Keystone community so special.
I hope you all have a peaceful and rejuvenating long weekend.
Warmly,
Emily
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Dear Keystone Parents,
On behalf of my colleagues, I am excited to welcome you to Parent-Teacher Conferences at the end of this week.
These meetings are important times for you to strengthen your relationships with your child(ren)’s teachers. When teachers and parents lock arms in support of children, amazing things can happen. We know that individual feedback about your child’s activities and progress in school is a key factor in your satisfaction and our successful partnership.
At Keystone we treasure the sacred triad of families, teachers and children to advance learning and growth in extraordinary ways. In a now famous blog post (https://www.challengesuccess.org/regaining-gratitude-this-thanksgiving/), child and school psychologist Dr. Madeline Levine describes the opportunity to shift towards a sense of gratitude as a parent. In the piece she warns against several common loving parent behaviors that risk limiting student growth.
I will point out two that I think are particularly relevant for this week of PTCs. First:
“I will not push my child to be perfect. Besides genetics, perfectionism is the strongest predictor of clinical depression. Life is full of mistakes, imperfect days and human failings. Kids need to learn how to cope with these inevitabilities. They (and you) need to be able to feel happiness and gratitude in the face of imperfection.”
There is a tendency in these conferences to ask teachers what you can do to help ensure the student improves their scores or marks. It would be more productive to ask what support you can provide so that the child continues to grow. This will make all the difference in your relationship with your child and in their learning.
Next:
“I will remember that I am a parent, not a CEO. Results are down the line, not at the end of the quarter. This means the occasional [low mark] will not break your child’s future prospects. Stop catastrophizing. You won’t see the final fruits of your parenting until your child is grown and gone.”
Keystone families invest a lot of resources into their child’s education. From tuition here, to activities and learning outside of the school, it can be easy to see why we look at parent teacher conferences through the lens of managing a company. This is not what these meetings are for. There will be metrics and data, but these meetings are about relationships between the caring adults who are most invested in the success of the children.
This conversation and relationship building cannot be outsourced. These meetings are for teachers and parents, not for tutors or other adults. If you are out of town, please reach out to the divisional offices to reschedule.
We know you will gain so much from getting to know your child’s amazing teachers. And the teachers are delighted at the opportunity to better know the parents of their precious students. Embrace this special time together; our children are so fortunate for the circle of care in which they live and learn.
Warmly,
Emily
