Reply to Parent/Teacher Conferences

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "Parent/Teacher Conferences"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In my experience (in public) teachers mainly ONLy shared positive things and were not clear  about areas where our student was having trouble.

Literally found out the next day in an email about the problems even though they only had positive things to say during the conference.

And, this was with very engaged and competent teachers.

I’m not sure if the teachers are afraid of parents reaction to bad news or if they figure you already know and want to keep the meeting positive.[/quote]

We have had a similar experiences. I sometimes felt like I was reading tea leaves trying to understand what the teacher was saying. I remember at one point a teacher gave us all this positive feedback on our DD, how well she was doing in class, that she was kind and follow directions, etc. And then there was a long pause, and she said "Does she... like school?" It felt so loaded. We immediately said yes, we thought she liked school, though sometimes she was anxious and struggled socially. The teacher just kind of nodded but said nothing. We'd been thinking about changing schools already (because of the anxiety and social struggles) but then kind of took that as the teacher confirming that instinct, but it's not like she was going to say "I think your daughter seems unhappy and would do better in a different school environment" because I guess you just aren't allowed to say stuff like that now?

We did change schools the next year, and it went okay and I think the next school was a better fit. But I've always wished that teachers could just be frank about their opinions because it's so hard as a parent to read between the lines and try to figure it out. Like the next year when DD had some challenges adjusting to her new school, there were days when I though "what if I misinterpreted that whole situation and that was just a standard question that teacher always asks and her responses were normal and she thought our kid was doing fine and was happy?" You have to really trust your own instincts and hope you get it right because very few people are going to tell it to you straight or give you direct advice (except precisely the people who have no idea and you wish would be quiet, like your husband's opinionated aunt or the neighbor who just wants you to validate her own choices by doing the same stuff).

I'd love a truly honest parent-teacher conference. It would be genuinely refreshing. Do other people get those?[/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