Reply to Your Relationship with the Teacher

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You don't need a "relationship" with the teacher. Public teachers are paid to educate kids, not entertain parents. If your kid is struggling significantly, then the teacher should reach out to you and initiate steps to get your kid help. Teachers are unbelievably busy and being forced to respond to parents of kids who are doing fine is just a waste of time. If you need a lot of the teacher's time and energy then pay for private. Public school class sizes are too huge for teachers to be able to devote any time to parents - the kids are the top priority.

If your kid is failing or performing below grade level, you should plan to interact with the teacher. Otherwise, don't waste the teacher's time. If your precious straight A student gets a B or a C and you need more than a 30-second email regarding his/her progress, then you are "that" parent. If you need a conference because your kid's straight A's have dropped to mostly B's and a few C's, then you are "that" parent. If you call every time your kid gets less than a B on an assessment, then you are "that" parent. Please, as a teacher, I'm begging you, let me focus on your kid, not you. [/quote]

I don't think you realize how much you are contradicting yourself. The kids are top priority so therefore ignore the parents? The parents are the first and foremost educators of the child. Before they even reach school age, parents need to be supported to teach their child if teachers care that much about making their jobs easier. You need both the teachers and the parents (and the counselors, staff, administrators, extended family, etc.) to ensure the success of each child. It takes a village remember? And believe it or not, I am the final arbiter when it comes to my child's nurturing and education. Not you. You are just a paid employee. And as a public employee you don't get to hide what you do or what you teach to my child.

Frankly, you sound territorial and defensive, and not at all interested in the welfare of the child, but possibly just insecure about someone outside of the school assessing your own ability to teach your students to standards. And clearly hurt by the fact that a parent needs to supplement what you cannot provide. But its not about you. As a parent and an educator myself, I understand the limitations teachers have, especially when they are being underpaid, so much instruction is top-down and politically-driven, classes are overcrowded, and students with a range of special needs aren't being addressed. The fact that I seek to supplement my daughter is not about calling you out as a failure--its about making sure she thrives even within a broken system. I used to be a substitute teacher in a really bad school long ago. I know for a fact that getting straight A's in some schools don't mean anything but being the only one in the class to complete worksheets way below grade level sometimes. That is not good enough for my daughter and it should not be for any child.

All of that other crap you are listing is made up nonsense. But if that is what you are extrapolating from a parent ASKING TO SEE CURRICULUM THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE POSTED ANYWAY, you are going to have a tough time in general. Every year that my child has been in public school, I have only contacted teachers at the beginning of the year to ask for curriculum and to offer to volunteer and ask which days/times would they need it most. Any other contact was twice a year during parent teacher conferences. I am pretty sure that is what most parents do, so this fear of "the boogeyman" response from some teachers in this thread over an email request is really troubling.

Thank goodness not all teachers are like you. My daughter's teacher this year had no problem fulfilling my request. The teacher last year did (but it was also her first year teaching, she was only 22, so I let it go). [/quote]

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