Everyone, especially children, benefits when parents
and teachers work together (Epstein, 1995). Parents
are children’s first teachers and have responsibility
for their child’s growth and development, including
their child’s overall education. Teachers, on the other
hand, have responsibility specifically for children’s
schooling. Ideally, there is a continuity of instruction
between home and school. The task, though, can
be difficult for the teacher because the parent is
advocating for one child, whereas the teacher has
to look out for an entire classroom filled with children
with differing backgrounds and sometimes differing
sets of parental expectations.