Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What teachers think

Yes-- and in all of my years of teaching (uni) and my mom's (primary, both public and private), this was what we observed to be true for 70-90% of our colleagues, too.

The problem is that on the one hand, that 10-30% of rotten apples on the teacher side ruin parents for rational discourse, and that on the other, about the same percentage of students (uni) and parents (primary and I'd assume also secondary) are also irrational.

I had never actually run into a truly irrational/difficult teacher until my DD was a high schooler. Of course, there are definitely lackluster, barely competent models. There are in most professions. For HG people, teaching isn't exactly filled with high octane processing speeds, to say the least...

but at least in primary, the loving and conscientious teachers can often make it work anyway-- for 99% of students, anyway.

We do ask teachers to do too much now. We do. Mainstreaming and inclusion are, on balance, both right and good-- but they DO create problems within classrooms when it comes to effective teaching.

Remove tracking/ability grouping and there is an additional and very critical hurdle.

Frankly, the largest reason that GOOD teachers have left (and continue to do so) seems to me to be the focus on testing-testing-testing. A lot of the good ones become so repulsed by that machine that they eventually quit thinking that they can be Don Quixote, and find something else to tilt at.

Well said.

Here's the problem that teachers, as a whole, have got to understand at some point - until they allow BAD teachers to be fired, and GOOD teachers to be given raises/promotions, they are all going to continue to be tarred by the handful of crap teachers.

All it takes is one shit teacher to sully a parents view of the school/district. One single year with one crap teacher can completely alter a parents view of their child's education. And they will likely talk about that crap teacher with their friends.

It's a very serious problem, and until teachers are willing to be treated like every single other profession, they are going to have problems.


Also, I have to agree with Irena.. as a parent of a 2e kid I cannot just assume the teacher is going to know what's going on with my kid. If I'd blindly trusted all his previous teachers he'd have probably ended up in a psychiatric ward! And I *have* had teachers straight up lie to my face about my child. It's very disconcerting, I know, but my child rarely, if ever, lies. And when he attempts to, he's terrible at it. So, yes, I ask my child to confirm a teacher's story - not necessarily because I do not believe her, but because I want to hear, from him, what happened.

TL;DR: One bad apple spoils the bunch.

I love that: 'present curriculum'. Exactly.

You know I read that and had a completely different thought pattern. My wife is a teacher of 29 years for MS & HS. My first thought pattern was wondering what the teacher would get so upset about if a parent did that? Why would one immediately assume that the question assumes the teacher is lying? How many times have any of us, knowing full well the answer asked our children, "Did you do X?" simply to confront them and have them admit guilt as part of holding them accountable? If a teacher immediately takes offense / becomes defensive in this scenario, then they've got confidence problems and aren't thinking past the end of their nose.

I know my kids feel that the worst punishment they can get is when I've confronted them and they see the deep disappointment in my eyes and perhaps get that verbal confirmation, "I'm really disappointed in your actions, you're a better person than that, so SHOW me that's true." I will, however, always discuss the issue with them and hear their side of the story before I make that judgement, to do otherwise is treating them with less respect than I do the teacher. I've raised my sons, I've lived with them for 15 and 19 years respectively, I know them like the back of my hand, yes, I'm going to treat them with as much respect and trust as I do the teacher and I'm going to question both my child and the teacher, their actions, their motives, and how they plan to move forward from this point. I hold myself accountable, I hold my kids accountable, and I'll hold a teacher accountable but not without getting to the bottom of things. There are precious few people who's word I take at face value simply because of a position they hold or a family status. Someone who I've met a couple of times and who's been involved in my child's life for less than 100 hrs. isn't one of them.

I know I could certainly write the counter article to that, "What parents want teachers to know and understand when educating our children." I don't disagree with everything the article addresses, however, the article generally states, "Hey, we're the experts here, back off." Well, no, you're not necessarily the expert and I've had about an hour of contact with any one teacher at most through the whole semester, it would be foolish of me to assume knowing someone for an hour that I'm going to assume they know what is right for my child and the best way to teach them. Trust and respect are gained not by virtue of position but by virtue of performance and building a relationship over time and we're talking about what is most precious to me.....so don't get your undies in a bunch.

I agree with most of your post, Old Dad. Also, I hate the thought that parents will never doubt a teacher and just blindly go along with everything and anything. The whole article just comes across as angry and bitter; if all teachers really feel this way, then I hope and wish that parents will involve themselves more than ever.

What a beautiful post, Old Dad.

Great post Old Dad.

Epoh, I agree about the bad apple, and I believe it works both ways with the bad parent. You would think most parents would be as vested in their children as we are, many are not. Also the system as a whole (Public system) try's to serve more and more as parents, and many parents are more then happy to turn over their parental responsabilitys to the schools.

YES.

A curriculum which is increasingly stupid/inane to the point of worthlessness, and which one would (truly) have to be cognitively impaired to not notice was.... um.. "bad." Bad is merely a kind euphemism there, actually.

I've discouraged my own DD from secondary teaching for that reason-- not because she doesn't have a passion for it, because she clearly does, and she's also very clearly got a real gift for it-- but because the lack of autonomy coupled with the apparent stupidity of those making curriculum decisions does nothing but chew up the good ones and spit them out.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that the professoriate is a better choice at this point, either-- because higher ed is being slowly infected by the same "progressive" and "disruptive" agenda, which from what I can tell is often little more than a mask for the underlying agenda of for-profit enterprises interested in maximizing profits from a captive audience of consumers.

What I'm reminded in relation to this article is a discussion I had with my wife (who I've previously mentioned is a teacher of 29 years) and ADORES it when parents come in to discuss their child. Her opinion is that's what parents are SUPPOSE to do, be an active part of their child's education, if they're not, she feels sorry for the child....anyway, she stated that the vast majority of teachers and administrators avoid meetings with parents like a disease, simply because they completely lack the skills to effectively work through any kind of confrontation. These aren't skills they teach in the college of education, there is no, "Teacher / Parent Meetings 101" Colleges teach the mechanics of teaching, they don't teach personal relationships and conflict management. Is it any wonder then that teachers are deathly afraid of meeting with parents and get defensive?