ABSTRACT
In 1917, Angelo Patri published A Schoolmaster of the Great City, a memoir about his work as a principal in a working-class, immigrant community in New York City. Patri described a variety of strategies for getting parents to “feel the power that comes through united effort” (p. 154). He identified and met with neighborhood leaders to hear their hopes and concerns; established after-school forums for parents and teachers to discuss issues of parenting and pedagogy; and linked parents with public officials who could bring additional resources to the school and its surrounding community. To bring in the hard-to-reach parents who “needed us most,” Patri and his teachers created a schedule of public lectures, concerts, and plays (p. 97). The social events served as a bridge to other participation. At intermission, Patri would rise and say, “My friends, I have brought you here to enlist your collective help in the work of the school” (p. 100).
