CNN has an article up What teachers really want to tell parents I found it odd and frankly naive.
The articles says “we need you to give us the respect we deserve.” The mantra of the article is trust us. It left me feeling like I should drop my child off at school, don’t question the teacher, go along with the teacher no matter what. Excuse me but NO. My child comes first.
Most teachers are there to help, sadly enough are not there to make it scary NOT to question a red mark on your child’s face that lasts for hours. There are children literally dying from illegal holds, in school suspensions, bullying… are we allowed to ask questions before or after our children are hurt?
Teachers should have more freedom and less paperwork. Parents should be active and firm if your child does something wrong. I feel it’s wrong to chastise parents for being…parents and caring for their children.
This article does nothing but encourage my decision to homeschool.
This quotes says it all—“Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can’t deal with parents anymore; they are killing us.”
Teacher of the year?? Yeah right. The children in public schools are literally orphans when left to go to school. Parents have no right, no opinion, no say in what is taught. This quote gives me the chills as a parent.
It’s absurd really that this person is labeled as a ‘”Phenomenal Man’ –Oprah’s opinion is of no value to me. 🙁
“This one may be hard to accept, but you shouldn’t assume that because your child makes straight A’s that he/she is getting a good education. The truth is, a lot of times it’s the bad teachers who give the easiest grades, because they know by giving good grades everyone will leave them alone.”
–Exactly why we homeschool. I KNOW WHAT MY SON’S ARE LEARNING!! ugh.
I cringed at this article as well. After four years of complete hell in the public school system, I shudder to think what would have happened to my son had I not constantly been on top of them.
Homeschooling has been such a blessing for us and I’m not going back.
The problem isn’t just a “teachers need more respect” issue and it isn’t just a “parents are causing all the problems by making excuses” issue. There are good teachers out there and there are I hesitate to say bad, as that isn’t really the appropriate descriptor, parents out there. My three boys are in the public school arena. I do my best to stay on top of things. Two of my boys have IEP’s and believe it or not are on opposite ends of the spectrum (one just happens to have DS and a few other alphabets to follow that and tests mildly to moderately mentally impaired depending on who has done the testing and the other son tests in the gifted range). My middle son at this point, while I believe he is much smarter than he shows the education establishment is perfectly content to give just enough to pass without putting forth too much effort. One thing I have found in the last 15 years (oldest has been in school since he was 3) is that many parents of children in special ed are very hands off — heaven help those special ed students that gets a “bad” teacher; unfortunately, that leaves the student whose parents are very hands-on often struggling with the “bad” teacher or even the “why-bother” teacher simply because they aren’t use to parents that want their child educated versus baby-sat.
I don’t believe parents need to take a hands-off approach to their child’s education even if they choose public schooling; however, I also think that all to often in today’s society parents are more likely to make excuses for Junior’s behavior. I love what a 1st grade teacher at my boys’ elementary school said the first week of school when addressing the new 1st graders and their parents: “Parents we promise to only believe half of what your child tells us happens at home if you promise to do us the same. Remember if you’re concerned about something contact us to find out our side and we’ll do the same for you.”
I can say that I am not the least surprised by this article, yet I am appalled at their demeanoring to parents attitude.
Having had to deal with the public school system and fighting hard as a parent to stay involved and work with the teachers as well as others in the building and district it was extremely exhausting to say the least. The icing on the cake was when verbal and metal abuse was permissible due to a teacher reaching ten yer.
I was told to to give it up and let them do their job and that as a parent I was to active and cared too much for my childs’ best interest and was interfering with their job.
I was not sure I could homeschool under the traditional brick and mortar way of thinking. I however knew that I would not verbal and mentally do to my child what this teacher was permitted to do to mine.
My only regret is that I would have never placed them in school or that I would have done it sooner. We love homeschooling!
I realize to that there were many lessons that I personally needed to learn that I would not have learned otherwise. I also would not have met the one teacher that I have become good friends with who turned out to be a great mentor even while putting her own job at stake. So yes there are some good caring teachers.
This article is being cheered in some quarters of the web (current and former teachers) booed by… well just about everyone else including education experts.
Haven’t we been pelted with studies, movies, and child help programs that are based on the theory the more involved the parent(s) are the more successful the student(s) are?!
You can’t have it both ways. I ask the educators that are cheering on this article, which do you want? A school full of orphans/mute parents or active engaged and yes sometimes not submissive parents working shoulder to shoulder with you to create a wonderful educated adult?