For those of you working with the middle or high school age group, one issue you often face is how to involve their parents more. For a variety of reasons parents appear to have less involvement when their kids are in secondary school. This issue has been the topic of discussion in many previous articles,(see parent involvement category) and one essential element that enhances parent involvement is creating a welcoming attitude and atmosphere.

I was delighted earlier this month when I spoke at CAJE (an annual conference by the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) and met Dr. Ron Wolfson. He has authored a book all about this titled… The Spirituality of Welcoming…How to Transform your Congregation into a Sacred Community. Although the book is focused on Jewish synagogues, his observations and recommendations are relevant to anyone who is concerned about creating a “welcoming” atmosphere; and it’s exciting to learn from someone who has thoroughly studied this element of our institutions.

It reminded me of a concept that I promote when I’m speaking to educators. I encourage people to “think big and think small.” By “Think Big” I mean to encourage you to develop system-wide approaches to enhance the welcoming attitude at your school, church, synagogue etc. For example:

By “think small” I encourage you to be thoughtful about your own behavior:

Want to explore this topic more? Let me hear your thoughts.

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