Thursday, September 27, 2012

Are school emails a problem? Tell me what you think.

My email inbox is again filled with such vague subject lines as:

Parent Teacher conferences
Test
Dress code
Upcoming assignments
URGENT for parents!

I know these messages deal with school, given that each sender's email ends in in the district's suffix, Beyond that it's a crap shoot. What school? What class? And then my brain scramble: Which child does this affect? My five children are in three schools this year, with 22 teachers among them. That's not including secretaries, administrators, lunch staff, student teachers, aides and counselors as possible sources of emails. I think I'm doing a good enough job delivering the proper children to the proper school each day without having to memorize 45,000 different letter combinations in front of dsdmail.net.

Sure, I can open up the email (which I do because I'm making every effort to support the schools), but that doesn't always shed more light. Take the "Dress code," message, for instance. It read:

SEE ATTACHMENT

I'm considering writing a nice letter to each school's administration, thanking them for the desire to communicate with parents, but also suggesting that emails could be far more helpful with detailed subject lines.

Is it too much to ask that the subject lines identify the school, class or pertinent dates? I don't think so.

But I do wonder if this is a unique request. What do you think? And what's the best/vaguest school email you've received?

2 comments:

Circe said...

More specificity would be great! I don't know all the kids' teachers' names. If I had a school, that would narrow it down. I'm always saying, "Ruby, do you have so-n-so?" I don't have time to be a detective! And I hate getting the phone call AND the email. I get it! The Block Walk is this Thursday! It's on my calendar!"

Kate said...

I got an email from my child's history teacher explaining/ warning me about an upcoming history test. I dutifully reminded my child about the test.

3 days after the test, I realized I'd talked to the wrong child.