Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Ph.D.
Emily Hargroves Professor of Education, Harvard University
The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other
In her hugely influential 2003 book, The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Ed.D., chooses an unusual term to describe the relationship between parents and teachers: “natural enemies,” inevitably adversarial because a parent’s view of their child is highly subjective, intimate, protective, and very loving, whereas a teacher’s view of the same child is more distant and dispassionate, balancing the needs of individual students with the development of the classroom community. While both are striving for “the best interest of the child,” what that means for each can produce conflict and distrust. Together with what Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot labels the “ghosts in the classroom,” the “generational echoes” of autobiography, culture, class, identity and values, these dynamics, and others, create powerful forces that shape the quality and tone of parent-teacher encounters.
Upcoming Events
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Rep. James E. Clyburn
U.S. Congressman representing South Carolina's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives
Natalie Y. Moore
Award-winning journalist and author and senior lecturer and director of audio programming at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
Evanston Township High School Auditorium
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods
Michaeleen Doucleff, Ph.D.
Bestselling author, biochemist, and award-winning NPR reporter
Heidi Stevens
Chicago-based writer and Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health
ON ZOOM
The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
Founding director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and professor, Child Study Center, Yale University
ON ZOOM

