Is it ever appropriate to invite a teacher to a party in your home?

[Anonymous]

Please don’t ever invite your child’s teacher to your party. We are not your friends. Beyond this, it’s highly inappropriate for a teacher to attend a party hosted by a child’s parent. It’s beyond me why any teacher would even entertain the thought of doing so. Being invited is almost always a way for the parent to try to obtain confidential info or to talk trash about the school, certain employees, or to get your “thoughts” on policies or other initiatives that they are unhappy about. They have nothing to lose, but by attending, you run a serious risk of party attendees twisting your words or gossiping about you later. You’ll find yourself defending yourself in a court of public opinion. Everyone loves to gossip about teachers. Accepting the invitation will come back to haunt even the most well-intentioned teacher. It’s hard to believe that some schools encourage this, as someone commented earlier. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

In preschool, sure. In elementary through high school, not until they've stopped being your kid's teacher.

My hebrew school teacher had an end of year bbq every single year. We would go to her house and have water fights in the back yard, eat, and hang out. It was awesome.

We were all a little extra careful in her house to not break things.

[Anonymous]

The administrators of our former daycare used to go out and party with parents. So inappropriate. Maybe they didn’t realize that everyone talked about it. Or else they didn’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't do it. No matter how well you think you get along, you are not "friends."

+1
Find friends whose salaries you don’t pay even if it’s indirectly.

[Anonymous]

We’ve had teachers at our parties before. Our families became friends. And when you have multiple kids, former teachers become current teachers again.

It must be awful going through life only expecting the worst of people and situations.

And we’ve had behavior problems with a kid after teacher had been to our home. It makes for a great home-school partnership when a teacher has met whole family and seen us discipline at home. We had a great line of communication and built in trust.

[Anonymous]

I have been on both sides of this.

My daughter is preschool teachers will usually attend birthday parties.

my students have invited me to parties but have never really given me a formal invitation I would probably decline just because I don't want to give the appearance of favoritism or

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don’t ever invite your child’s teacher to your party. We are not your friends. Beyond this, it’s highly inappropriate for a teacher to attend a party hosted by a child’s parent. It’s beyond me why any teacher would even entertain the thought of doing so. Being invited is almost always a way for the parent to try to obtain confidential info or to talk trash about the school, certain employees, or to get your “thoughts” on policies or other initiatives that they are unhappy about. They have nothing to lose, but by attending, you run a serious risk of party attendees twisting your words or gossiping about you later. You’ll find yourself defending yourself in a court of public opinion. Everyone loves to gossip about teachers. Accepting the invitation will come back to haunt even the most well-intentioned teacher. It’s hard to believe that some schools encourage this, as someone commented earlier. Yikes.

Teacher here. I wouldn’t go to a party of a current student. But you need to leave teaching, please - so much paranoia and assuming the worst in this post.

[Anonymous]

At our private school, the teachers' kids are often enrolled in the school. Those kids get invited to birthday parties like any other kid -- the school has a policy of inviting everyone if the party isn't tiny. For preschool, the parties normally have the parents in attendance. My kid is currently in the same preschool year as my kid's teacher's child. The child is in one of the other classes in that "grade". However, children from the other classes in the "grade" are often invited to the parties. So we see their teacher at the parties, although sometimes they send their spouse instead. It's perfectly fine.