I'm not sure if it's because of all the dieting that I'm doing but lately I'm just noticing how weird our parents can be. I'm not one to point fingers, I know i'm not exactly the most sane person around, however, after hearing this rant you might understand a little bit of where I'm coming from.
I have a friend who's a 4th grade teacher, and one of her parents have been having problems with this teacher. Problems such as, not enough contact, not enough caring and support for her son, and not enough of hard discipline on those who bully her son. Nothing too extreme, right, just a mother who cares for her son. I even felt a bit sorry for her.
Well it turns out, that of all the kids in her classroom, this is the only student who receives grades on a weekly basis, he does get more than enough caring and support not only from his classroom teacher, but from the whole school as well, and since there are no phones in the teacher's rooms, and horrible cell phone reception, communication is limited to phone messages, and notes sent to and from. So from that stand point everything would seem like the teacher is doing as much as she can for this student.
Not too long ago the mother took it even a step further, and asked to sit in one of her teachings, so she can see how her teaching style is like. I'm sure that she had no problem with that and probably even agreed to that. But can you just imagine a parent making those kind of requests? I have been imagining myself in that same situation, and when that request is made to me, and I flip it around and say "Sure....let's also schedule a time when I can come over and observe your parenting skills".
Teachers are way too often held accountable for everything a student does in their classroom. We are measured, reviewed, surveyed, poked and steped on, by administrators and parents alike. It's the nature of the job, and I understand how important it is to be held to such a high standard. Yet how much accountablility do the parents have in the whole process?
For those parents who do care and do go the distance for their children, I admire you. For those other parents, who let their kids play video games all night, who neglect to provide a jacket for the cold weather, who consistently drop off and pick up their children late, who do not read to their children at night and who do not hold their children to a high standard.......HOW ON EARTH DO THEY EXPECT US TO DO THAT????
Maybe I'm just a little tired, and a bit cranky....but I would like to see more accountablility from parents and hold them to the same high standard that teachers are held to. In the end, I do believe that this will greatly benefit the child in all aspects of the world. Let's see if this new era of change will handle this.....although I'm not holding my breath.
2 comments:
I truly understand what you mean. I had one parent who told me that I should call her each time that her son didn't do his homework. I asked her how many kids did she had. She replied that she had three. I told her I had 104. She left me alone then!
Last week I had another student complain that I didn't teach in a format that match his learning style (I teach 8th grade math.) This is a student that is a constant disruption and has had charges pressed against him. He said that I needed to make the class more hands-on since he was a kinesthetic learner. His main complaint was my use of a BrainPop video every 3 to 4 weeks. He said it was too visual of a format. My first response was to turn to the class and ask, "How many of you are visual learners?" 20 out of the 26 students raised their hands. I then turned back to the student and asked him, "Am I supposed to only tailor my class to your needs and not meet the needs of these students?" And then I asked him why he never took notes in my class since that is something that would benefit his learning style. No answers.
I get very tired of students and parents not dealing with the problems that they could address: lack of studying, lack of students' applying themselves and the inability to accept responsibility.
I read on another blog, that the main difference between private and public schools is the "buy-in" factor. Teachers, students and staff all work together to achieve a common goal. Everyone is aware of what's expected of them, and for more or less they all enjoy their part.
The question of the day....how to get that attitude over to the public schools? If you happen to find the answer to this, please let me know.
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