Parent Meetings: They’re not what you think…

One of the more common questions we hear from visitors learning about Ascent is, “What opportunities are there for parents to volunteer?”

We understand the heart behind the question. We’re parents too. There is real joy in stepping into our children’s world, being close to their brilliance, contributing where they learn and play, feeling useful and connected. We also know that there may be heightened anxiety when someone poses that question, as many come from communities and environments where the educational model depends on parental involvement.

And yet, as founders of a learner-driven community, we find ourselves pausing before answering. Because what we are building here requires something more precise than presence, and something deeper than help.

So our answer is often a gentle: “Not really, but…”

The follow-up question inevitably comes: “Then what is the role of the parent?”

Here’s the paradox: our ask is infrequent but profoundly demanding.

Generally speaking, we do not need parents inside the learning environment. In fact, our entire model works towards empowering young people and stepping back so they are free to create, lead, succeed, fail, reflect, and support each other. 

We need parents who are willing to do their own work outside of the confines of the studios. Parents who are willing to loosen control, sit with discomfort, and practice seeing their children not as fragile projects to manage, but as capable heroes in the midst of their own unfolding journey.

At Ascent, the bare minimum of this commitment takes the form of participation in Parent Meetings. 

These gatherings are not PTA meetings. They are not logistical updates or feedback forums (both of which have their own important spaces). They are workouts- spaces for reflection, recalibration, and growth that build our own ‘heroic muscles’ so they are strong when called upon. (And as any Ascent parent can attest, those muscles will be needed!) These large-group Socratic discussions are a place to examine our instincts, our fears, our habits, our projections. A place to practice trust. A place to remember that resilience is not something we instill in children, but something we protect by believing they are capable, and leaning into discomfort. We dig into what it means to be on a Hero’s Journey as a parent and offer these meetings as a place for each parent’s individual journey to intersect with parents in their community. It’s a place to do our work as parents. We host three Parent Meetings each year, and we ask that at least parents from every family attend two. This is not out of a need for compliance, but because the work really matters. The more we can work on ourselves as parents, the more we’re able to allow our children to have their own paths..

When parents commit to their own Hero’s Journey, something subtle and powerful shifts. Children feel it, and they rise into the space that opens when belief take the place of hovering, and trust replaces control.