Reply to Parents of difficult students asking for private school recommedation paperwork

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can find nice things to write about most kids, but recently a parent asked me to write a private school recommedation for a child who was difficult in class, was distracting to the learning of others, and didn't show any intellectual curiosity. It was a hard year with this kid, and the parents were not receptive to working as a team.

Is it acceptable to tell parents they should ask his previous year's English teacher instead? Knowing that teacher's experience, I don't think he would have more positive feedback.[/quote]

It sounds like this student was depressed and/or struggling with the content (or alternatively the content was too easy). I am a special ed teacher and I think viewed one way a lot of my students could be described this way (but it doesn't tell the whole story). What I know is that ALL kids have intellectual curiosity, but are not always curious about the specific curriculum we are teaching, or are able to demonstrate this well in the traditional settings. Maybe the parents are trying to find a setting where the child can leverage strengths better and have needs met better. Does this student have a special ed teacher or related services provider (speech, OT) who you could ask for input? In the absence of positive things to say or strengths to include (does the child have a good sense of humor, able to hyper-focus on a preferred activity, respond well to group projects, contribute to peer discussions, respond well to multi-sensory learning, thrive when given breaks and choice ?) Anything? Any specials or extracurricular teachers you could get some input from?

I know you don't want to spend hours and hours on this, but even the most difficult kid (or person) has strengths and potential even if it can be REALLY HARD at times to discover it and nurture it especially when you have many students to help. I think you could say that, in essence, "child would really thrive in a classroom with a low student to teacher ratio where their strengths can be nurtured."[/quote]

+1 I was thinking perhaps this child has ADHD and he would thrive in an environment with a smaller teacher to child ratio. Would you really think it’s dishonest to put that he would thrive in an environment with a smaller class size and more attention from the teacher?

The parent desire to move their child to a private placement might be a sign that they agree he needs more than what MCPS teachers can provide. You can be a superstar teacher who is stretched thin with 30+ students with various abilities and various attention spans. [/quote]
+1.  The parents know that the status quo isn't working.  Find something nice to say about the kid so he can find a school with a better fit.  Was he excited about athletics?  Did he have friends?  Was he ever funny?  Artistic?  Compassionate?  Surely you can think of something to say.  [/quote]

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