As with the wireless telephone game, schools are currently facing the challenge of communicating with families without noise and effectively. Social networks and, especially, WhatsApp groups for parents, have made some disagreements in the school-family relationship recurrent. These discussions generally arise from classroom situations or school communications that reach those responsible through these means, often with incorrect information and misinterpretations.

The use of technology facilitates communication, it is a fact, and helps some families to organize and obtain information in faster and more objective ways. However, a registered expression can generate different interpretations and even discomfort.

Research in the area of ​​education and communication already indicates that WhatsApp “has become a kind of permanent parents’ meeting”. Technology facilitates some relationships and tools like WhatsApp allow groups to chat privately about a wide range of topics. However, such groups have different objectives, and the clarity of these objectives and limits is the subject of the reflection that we propose below.

Like any difficult topic, we need to take on the challenge of facing it. We understand that a good conversation and clarification on how the School has been interpreting the phenomenon “conversations between parents in WhatsApp groups” are necessary and urgent.

At our school, most parents participate in these groups. We understand that WhatsApp groups help to quickly deal with common issues, strengthen social relationships and publicize and promote cultural and leisure programs among children. They facilitate the organization of meetings outside the school, communicate parties and birthdays, publicize community actions, warn about contagious illnesses (which sometimes were not communicated by parents and guardians to the school…), in short, in fact, they promote rapprochement and a culture collaboration between families.

This is the most positive aspect of the groups: they expanded the school doors and included those who are unable to pick up and drop off their children every day. But to what extent do themes that generate discomfort among participants in WhatsApp groups also appear, and subjects that promote disagreements and hasty interpretations of phenomena inherent to everyday school life?

The school is responsible for caring for and protecting children

We always consider the way we expose a certain situation to others, understanding that school is the place to learn to live together. It is at school, and with family partnership, that children learn to relate to each other, to live in a community, to cultivate values ​​and principles that govern a democratic and respectful society.

We live in many situations in which the school is informed indirectly about distorted, partially analyzed everyday scenes, with a magnifying glass on the actions of children and/or teachers, in which, as a rule, there is stigmatization, superficial pre-judgments and, often, leaving aside the main interested in clarifying any incident, the school. As Fernanda Flores states:

A child who attacks is not necessarily a threat; an object that disappears is not necessarily the result of theft; an adult who gets angry was not necessarily inappropriate; a sentence taken out of context (a common thing for a child reporting a scene at home) does not mean, literally, what was said; a disorganized family temporarily does not stop loving and caring for its children; Childish teasing is not always bullying. We need to consider, and those who can do this, with all appropriateness, are the professionals at the school chosen by families to welcome their children.

Some topics that grow in conversations in WhatsApp groups sometimes don’t even reach school

The school has several means of communicating with families – whether through an electronic diary, social networks, periodic meetings and individual consultations. We have to be clear – and this has been a challenge for this “new generation” – that certain conversations, certain subjects must be dealt with face to face, in person, mediated by looks, tone of voice, gestures and with the necessary balance when We face struggles common to life in the community.