known bad teacher

[Anonymous]

I think you should name the school and the subject. I know that admin and PTA from our school regularly read DCUM, and being dragged here would help motivate them to fix an issue. It has happened before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, every single school has one or more (hopefully not many) of these teachers.

If you're on child #2 or beyond, you actively work to make sure your kid doesn't get this teacher. If you are a newbie and unfortunately end up with him/ her, there is not a lot you can do about it, but you do get involved in the situation and get vocal if you have to.

Document and complain. Go to the division head with concrete proof about your points, not just accusations. Talk to parents of other kids in the class behind the scenes and encourage them to do the same. Most likely, you are right - the school will not do anything to help your child, but continued pressure on this situation may help another family/ kid in the future.

And in the long run, don't worry about it. Chances are your kid will have mostly amazing teachers throughout his/ her time at this school. One bad apple won't sink it all, although unfortunately, we've had the experience of a teacher so bad that she effectively killed my DC's budding interest in the subject.

DP. Very helpful post.

With regard to the bolded above, how do you make that happen 'actively work'? If the school won't change classes just for a teacher, what avenue is there to prevent it from happening to 2nd/subsequent child.

PP who wrote this. In our case, we went to the curriculum/ academic person of the division (the person who handles scheduling kids and their classes - not the division head) early on - as in, the spring before DC2 would be taking that particular course the following fall - and told this person point blank that we didn't want DC2 to have that teacher, because we as a family had such a bad experience with him/ her and DC1. With four kids we've had to do this only twice, but at two different schools and the request has been honored.

Believe me, they know.

Our schools claims they have a policy of not allowing changes for teacher's preference. They won't do it for anyone we were told.

I wish they had a policy of removing incompetent teachers they have known about for years and years.

They claim they won’t, but they will. They figure you might take your lumps once but a second year of this would make you leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, every single school has one or more (hopefully not many) of these teachers.

If you're on child #2 or beyond, you actively work to make sure your kid doesn't get this teacher. If you are a newbie and unfortunately end up with him/ her, there is not a lot you can do about it, but you do get involved in the situation and get vocal if you have to.

Document and complain. Go to the division head with concrete proof about your points, not just accusations. Talk to parents of other kids in the class behind the scenes and encourage them to do the same. Most likely, you are right - the school will not do anything to help your child, but continued pressure on this situation may help another family/ kid in the future.

And in the long run, don't worry about it. Chances are your kid will have mostly amazing teachers throughout his/ her time at this school. One bad apple won't sink it all, although unfortunately, we've had the experience of a teacher so bad that she effectively killed my DC's budding interest in the subject.

DP. Very helpful post.

With regard to the bolded above, how do you make that happen 'actively work'? If the school won't change classes just for a teacher, what avenue is there to prevent it from happening to 2nd/subsequent child.

PP who wrote this. In our case, we went to the curriculum/ academic person of the division (the person who handles scheduling kids and their classes - not the division head) early on - as in, the spring before DC2 would be taking that particular course the following fall - and told this person point blank that we didn't want DC2 to have that teacher, because we as a family had such a bad experience with him/ her and DC1. With four kids we've had to do this only twice, but at two different schools and the request has been honored.

Believe me, they know.

Our schools claims they have a policy of not allowing changes for teacher's preference. They won't do it for anyone we were told.

I wish they had a policy of removing incompetent teachers they have known about for years and years.

Would you pleaser reread PP's post? This is not a change. You ask not to be put there in the first place. And yes, they will do it. You were given bad information.

I am that pp. They will not honor any requests----before schedules are made or after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, every single school has one or more (hopefully not many) of these teachers.

If you're on child #2 or beyond, you actively work to make sure your kid doesn't get this teacher. If you are a newbie and unfortunately end up with him/ her, there is not a lot you can do about it, but you do get involved in the situation and get vocal if you have to.

Document and complain. Go to the division head with concrete proof about your points, not just accusations. Talk to parents of other kids in the class behind the scenes and encourage them to do the same. Most likely, you are right - the school will not do anything to help your child, but continued pressure on this situation may help another family/ kid in the future.

And in the long run, don't worry about it. Chances are your kid will have mostly amazing teachers throughout his/ her time at this school. One bad apple won't sink it all, although unfortunately, we've had the experience of a teacher so bad that she effectively killed my DC's budding interest in the subject.

DP. Very helpful post.

With regard to the bolded above, how do you make that happen 'actively work'? If the school won't change classes just for a teacher, what avenue is there to prevent it from happening to 2nd/subsequent child.

PP who wrote this. In our case, we went to the curriculum/ academic person of the division (the person who handles scheduling kids and their classes - not the division head) early on - as in, the spring before DC2 would be taking that particular course the following fall - and told this person point blank that we didn't want DC2 to have that teacher, because we as a family had such a bad experience with him/ her and DC1. With four kids we've had to do this only twice, but at two different schools and the request has been honored.

Believe me, they know.

Our schools claims they have a policy of not allowing changes for teacher's preference. They won't do it for anyone we were told.

I wish they had a policy of removing incompetent teachers they have known about for years and years.

They claim they won’t, but they will. They figure you might take your lumps once but a second year of this would make you leave.

So sacrifice your firstborn, for the good of the second/subsequent children? It is very frustrating.

[Anonymous]

If the teacher is that bad, the school knows.

I would take this up the chain though. There shouldn't be someone that bad in a school you pay lots of $ to attend. This isn't public school after all.

[Anonymous]

My upper school has had the same absolutely terrible teacher two years in a row. The school must know but it’s not like they are going to fire them (and it’s not a new teacher who needs a mentor or something.) They have had some excellent teachers, many so-so ones, and more than one straight up incompetent teacher.

[Anonymous]

I know of a school with a known-incompetent teacher, who also coaches X sport. He is untouchable, because he gets 2-3 extra students into Ivys using an athletics/coach-sponsored admissions hook for selected players of X from that school to play X for the Ivy.

Parents who know about the issue talk with administration quietly - well in advance - to get their kid scheduled with another teacher of that subject.

Sad, but true story, albeit this is not a local school.

[Anonymous]

What I did:

Spoke to my child's counselor about what my child reported was said in class (upper school, so not what a 10 year old is reporting)


Apparently I was not the only parent or student who spoke to their child's counselor. The school has apparently talked to the teacher, and we expect changes. If it doesn't happen shortly, we expect this teacher to be dismissed.

[Anonymous]

Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

Exactly. Normalize this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

He has already had that learning experience numerous times in his life and always powered through.

This one is on an entirely new level. It's not personality/toughness, etc. It's pure incompetence. I don't pay to have my kid have to teach themselves the material since the communication is so poor in the classroom and is known far and wide, and has been for years.

With a tough Junior year schedule nobody has time to deal with this sh*t. 6 kids have dropped in the past few weeks and it happens every year--but not to the other 2 courses at the same level with different instructors. Nobody has an issue in those classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

He has already had that learning experience numerous times in his life and always powered through.

This one is on an entirely new level. It's not personality/toughness, etc. It's pure incompetence. I don't pay to have my kid have to teach themselves the material since the communication is so poor in the classroom and is known far and wide, and has been for years.

With a tough Junior year schedule nobody has time to deal with this sh*t. 6 kids have dropped in the past few weeks and it happens every year--but not to the other 2 courses at the same level with different instructors. Nobody has an issue in those classes.

If I know the teacher you are talking about, I 100% agree. We are people that never get involved. Never. Our kids have dealt with crappy coaches, crappy teachers, and all kinds of situations we taught them to advocate for themselves and power through.

In the situation you describe, kid dropped class to another level. It sucked because he was purely capable of excelling but nobody does under that person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I know exactly which teacher you are talking about, although I guess there is probably one or two at every school. Last year, we tried working with the teacher first, then the administration, and no, there was no recourse. Local tutoring companies have tutors that specialize in this particular teacher, and when I raised that fact to the administration, they scoffed at the unprofessionalness of the tutoring company telling me that, which earned an eye roll from me.

Omg.

When it's that level of incompetence, it's not the students. Why do the schools deal with this year after year? Does the teacher have them by the balls or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

He has already had that learning experience numerous times in his life and always powered through.

This one is on an entirely new level. It's not personality/toughness, etc. It's pure incompetence. I don't pay to have my kid have to teach themselves the material since the communication is so poor in the classroom and is known far and wide, and has been for years.

With a tough Junior year schedule nobody has time to deal with this sh*t. 6 kids have dropped in the past few weeks and it happens every year--but not to the other 2 courses at the same level with different instructors. Nobody has an issue in those classes.

When parents complain and do nothing about it, that is a problem. You either have your kid drop, or you complain to administrators. Advice - don't just say the teacher is incompetent. Unless you have a PhD in the subject area and/or significant teaching experience in that area, "incompetence" is a meaningless description. You need to be specific when you say the students need to teach themselves. Does the teacher not give out homework? Does not grade homework? Does not say anything in class? Is the teacher available for office hours? Is the teacher factually incorrect? As kids move up in high school, kids are generally expected to take on a more active role in their own learning. They should not be spoon-fed information and led by hand from assignment to assignment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody wants to be in this classroom, but have you considered that this is a learning moment for your child? We’ve all had this experience. Sometimes the learning is how to get through the difficult teacher/boss/etc and move on with life. You don’t need to clear every adverse experience from their pathway.

He has already had that learning experience numerous times in his life and always powered through.

This one is on an entirely new level. It's not personality/toughness, etc. It's pure incompetence. I don't pay to have my kid have to teach themselves the material since the communication is so poor in the classroom and is known far and wide, and has been for years.

With a tough Junior year schedule nobody has time to deal with this sh*t. 6 kids have dropped in the past few weeks and it happens every year--but not to the other 2 courses at the same level with different instructors. Nobody has an issue in those classes.

When parents complain and do nothing about it, that is a problem. You either have your kid drop, or you complain to administrators. Advice - don't just say the teacher is incompetent. Unless you have a PhD in the subject area and/or significant teaching experience in that area, "incompetence" is a meaningless description. You need to be specific when you say the students need to teach themselves. Does the teacher not give out homework? Does not grade homework? Does not say anything in class? Is the teacher available for office hours? Is the teacher factually incorrect? As kids move up in high school, kids are generally expected to take on a more active role in their own learning. They should not be spoon-fed information and led by hand from assignment to assignment.

Most of the posters on here have advanced and/or professional degrees from top universities. They understand higher learning. Most have more than one child. By high school, they aren't new to this rodeo. A teacher with a reputation known far and wide for being irrational and a problem is not about not 'spoon-feeding'. We are talking about advanced students in a college-level courses. Some doing independent study.

I agree, offer specifics. However, these teachers are never let go. You unfortunately drew the short straw.

My one son was like Charlie Brown, if there was a notoriously bad teacher in a grade, he was always assigned to his/her class. Always. I came to see it's most likely that we are a family that NEVER complained or raised an issue and he is an agreeable kid that was always an A-student. These type of kids are often the ones sh*t one year after year. They aren't the squeaky wheel.