Reply to Question to Teachers: What is it like dealing with parents?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Question to Teachers: What is it like dealing with parents?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Parents can be great, they can be fine, or they can be really frustrating. I teach self contained special ed, where kids can be placed for a whole range of issues (speech language impairment, emotional/behavioral issues, intellectual disability, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities, autism, other health impairment...those are the classifications I've encountered in my class in four years as a special educator). Some parents are totally fatalistic about their kids, i.e. "my child doesn't do homework because he doesn't understand anything and he can't."

Some parents are totally unrealistic, repeatedly asking why their child with a major cognitive impairment and global delays isn't achieving at grade level and trying to place blame on me and my colleagues, on the curriculum, etc. Some parents expect me to cater to them, requesting 1:1 attention and support, demanding that I track down assessments and documents and materials to send home multiple times a week, and requesting frequent hour long meetings for which I have no coverage for my class.

Some parents ask me for ridiculous things, like to make them a birthday card (honestly that was sad, but I still didn't do it) or to sew labels into all of the clothes their child brings to school.

Still other parents never show up at school, rarely return a phone call, return paperwork, etc. They don't come to IEP meetings or send in emergency cards. They don't touch their child's folders to look for permission slips, homework, or announcements. They don't send them to school in weather appropriate, well fitting, appropriate clothing. They call once in a blue moon to demand that the school secretary send enrollment forms home. They don't pick up when the nurse calls saying they have a fever, or that they're throwing up, or that they fell and hurt themselves.

And some parents are just fine. They do homework regularly but don't hound me for more or call me to complain about it. They write me occasional notes or call me to ask a question, and write quick responses to my notes home. They sign permission slips and come in with cupcakes on their child's birthday.

You always get some of each, but sometimes you get really unlucky and you have a difficult group. I can't spend all my time at work on the phone with parents or tracking down the OT to forward your questions and photocopy their notes, or printing extra worksheets or providing free one on one tutoring to your child. You try to balance giving in to some of the insanity and putting the kibosh on the rest, just like at any job. Some things I ignore out of self preservation, some things warrant a weekend email, and some things I'll get to next week.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics