What teachers really want to tell parents.

[SWTXBelle]

Teacher - adult
student - child

Teachers can be wrong, but the odds of you being called in for something a teacher isn't 100% sure about are pretty slim - parental meetings are a major pain, requiring paperwork, dealing with the administration, not to mention the stress. 99% of teachers aren't going to go through the hassle if it isn't a serious problem, and if they don't know what they saw. You as a parent should have already talked to your child about the incident/behavior before you go into the meeting. If you were meeting with me, your child would not be at the meeting. Parents need to partner with teachers, not regard them as the enemy.

The problem isn't parents who listen to their children and come in willing to hear the teacher; the problem is the parents who will not even entertain the idea that their little snowflake could do anything wrong. The problem is parents who come in openly hostile. You think our pretty princess entitled pnms come out of nowhere? Those apples aren't falling far from the trees.

Teaching college has definite advantages to teaching middle school.

eta - I'm not only a teacher; I'm a parent. Just today I wrote my youngest son's teacher on this, the first day of school, to alert him to certain behaviors that might be a problem and to let him know how we have been working with him this summer. THAT is partnering. I know my youngest is not perfect. But I'm his first teacher, and I want to WORK with his teachers to enable him to become the young man I know he can be. I welcome their input. Last year, when my other son reported a very troublesome incident at the school, I wrote the teacher, had a meeting, and very quickly figured out, working with him, what had happened and how my son had misinterpreted what had been said. The teachers know I regard them as allies. They know I'm not going to go off half-cocked based on something an 8 year old thinks he might have heard.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Teacher - adult
student - child

Teachers can be wrong, but the odds of you being called in for something a teacher isn't 100% sure about are pretty slim - parental meetings are a major pain, requiring paperwork, dealing with the administration, not to mention the stress. 99% of teachers aren't going to go through the hassle if it isn't a serious problem, and if they don't know what they saw.

Oh - so because teachers are, on the whole, so lazy as to generally avoid such work, they should be given the benefit of the doubt in those rare occasions when the behavior catalyzes the teacher's actions, forcing them over the hump and making them actually perform the "major pain" you described?

See where we're going here? You're basically doing the same thing you accuse parents of doing, just in favor of the profession, rather than a child.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Oh - so because teachers are, on the whole, so lazy as to generally avoid such work, they should be given the benefit of the doubt in those rare occasions when the behavior catalyzes the teacher's actions, forcing them over the hump and making them actually perform the "major pain" you described?

See where we're going here? You're basically doing the same thing you accuse parents of doing, just in favor of the profession, rather than a child.

Oh, yes, that's exactly what I meant. Thank you for clarifying. Here I was thinking it was liable to be misinterpreted as pointing out that teacher's don't call meetings just to amuse themselves and to fill up all that spare time they have since they only work from 8 - 3, but you've summed it up nicely.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Oh, yes, that's exactly what I meant. Thank you for clarifying. Here I was thinking it was liable to be misinterpreted as pointing out that teacher's don't call meetings just to amuse themselves and to fill up all that spare time they have since they only work from 8 - 3, but you've summed it up nicely.

Nobody claimed teachers call meetings to amuse themselves - you're fighting strawmen like they're on top of a hill at Normandy.

Think about what you've said, though:

1 - Parents who think Little Johnny is perfect, or close to it, are wildly overrating their child and make it difficult to get anything done.

2 - Teachers should be considered 99% (or more!) accurate (meaning perfect, or close to it) with their observations and analysis of child behavior, because after all, who wants to hold meetings?

Oh.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Nobody claimed teachers call meetings to amuse themselves - you're fighting strawmen like they're on top of a hill at Normandy.

Think about what you've said, though:

1 - Parents who think Little Johnny is perfect, or close to it, are wildly overrating their child and make it difficult to get anything done.

2 - Teachers should be considered 99% (or more!) accurate (meaning perfect, or close to it) with their observations and analysis of child behavior, because after all, who wants to hold meetings?

Oh.

IRONY. It was irony. Perhaps hyperbole. Jeez.

1. - No. Parents who will not entertain the idea that their children are in need of help - be it behavior or scholastic - make it impossible for teachers to work with them to help their children.

2. - NO - I never said they were perfect in any way; I did say that they are not going to randomly call meetings without having some basis for doing so. If you want to argue that teachers -whatever percentage you wish - are in fact calling meetings with no basis, I'd like to know what you are basing that assumption on - your experience? A Study? What? Or are you arguing that teachers can't identify a child who is struggling scholastically or a behavior problem?