Andrew I agree with you whole-heartedly. Parents are the most important link between a teacher and the child. We as teachers are going to have to work with the parents of our children to make sure that they reach their full potential. I do have one point that I would like to draw attention to however. You mentioned how parents need to make it to parent teacher conferences and I would just like to point out how this is true it is not always possible. Speaking as a child from a single parent family I can tell you that this is often a goal but doe not always happen.
As a child my mother had 3 kids, 3 years apart, and we were in back to back grades. As much as my mother wanted to I can guarantee that there were times that she had to miss parent teacher conferences for a least one of us if not all of us all the time (more so if she had to go to more than one school). As teachers we need to take note of things like this and if it is happening you may have to make a supplemental appointment or even communicate through writing with some of your parents.
