Reply to How to deal with a teacher who doesn't want to deal with parents

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
 14:40 again. Just to give you some perspective, most developed countries have that kind of stay-out mentality. Teaching is left to the professionals, and parents are not welcome in schools, to interfere, distract or even be asked to grade assignments, which is a huge breach of privacy.

As you know, the US is way behind a lot of countries, developed and otherwise, in international high school achievement tests. Looking at the big picture, keeping parents out of schools doesn't hurt.

[/quote]

Good point.  OP, when your child is being examined by a doctor, do you feel the need/right to ask the doctor the methods and rationale for his/her approach/procedures and the order of events in the treatment?  I'm guessing you probably have confidence in the doctor's expertise, and you understand that the doctor's time is valuable, so he/she is not expected to give you a detailed play-by-play.[/quote]

At first blush I thought this was ironic.  Then I realized you were serious.  If I questioned or didn't understand the course of treatment you are damn right I insert myself and ask questions.  And if you don't then, respectfully, you aren't doing your job as a parent.  The amount of commentary on the importance of managing and owning your own healthcare is staggering.

P.S. You should be an active participant in your own healthcare as well.[/quote]

You don't understand the point I was attempting to make.

Yes, of course I ask questions if I don't understand the course of treatment.  However, I don't expect the doctor to give me a play-by-play on a routine appointment, and I don't need to know what time the doctor is going to process or send off blood work after I leave, or what kind of instruments are in the cabinets, or what brand of cotton swab is being used, etc.  My point is that people generally respect the time of other professionals, and they respect the professional's training and expertise, yet for some reason these same people expect teachers to devote much more time to chatter and communication about things that aren't essential and only detract from the time the teacher would otherwise spend planning/teaching.  Classroom daily schedules (center times, carpet times, recess times, etc.) are NOT equivalent to a complicated medical treatment that would warrant intense and time consuming communication.  They are more the equivalent of listening to a kid's heart during a routine check-up.  It enrages me when people treat teachers as domestic staff rather than professionals.

Oh, and if someone else was taking up my doctor's time by asking inane questions about when exactly during a typical routine treatment he would listen to a kid's heart, and why the doctor had photographs of an owl on the wall, and when the doctor planned to update the window treatments in the office, I would hope that the doctor would "discourage communication" with that individual so that time could be spent on doing the things the doctor is trained to do.  [/quote]

I'm a professional.  My time is very valuable.  I am very, very senior and own a huge P&L (size matters sometimes).  And I think my time is valuable.  And the people who work for me's time is valuable.  And people ask me and my team inane questions all day because we have an expertise they do not and we are relied on to treat them all professionally and respectfully and find ways to make them and their queries feel valuable and relevant. Sometimes I have to push them off for a while but I've never said or heard said about my profession what you assert is true about teachers.  And anyone who operated in my org with the attitude espoused above would be counseled to change, and terminated if they couldn't adapt.  It amazes me that teachers (and their little parrot supporters) seem to think that they are the only people who get treated like that.

P.S. You picked a bad analogy to make your point.  While I respect that you doubled down, you set yourself up for failure with that choice.   [/quote]

No, I didn't pick a bad analogy.  You don't understand because you don't respect teachers or what they do; nothing would convince you that what you want from this teacher is not only detrimental to the students (because she should be spending time planning, not answering inane questions about when "center time" is held, or making you feel good about your time-wasting attempts to "help" her).  YOU have "set YOURSELF up for failure" with your choice to plow ahead in your disrespectful behavior in the classroom, and you are setting your child up for failure because you are the kind of parent the teacher avoid; the teacher will also avoid stretching your child if there is a chance the child won't like it, and it will bring crazed, huffing, oh-so-important Mama Bear into her classroom.  I feel so sorry for your children's teachers.[/quote] +1[/quote]

So in your world teachers are amazing professionals...but not professional enough to avoid punishing kids for their parents' "failures"?  I feel sorry for the bulk of great, dedicated, professional teachers who are burdened by "spokespeople" like you who embarrass their profession and make them seem like petty little children with every post like this.  Just so we're clear, I'm arguing that teachers are no less professional and capable of managing demanding customers (and make no mistake, when kids are minors and their parents pay the bills, the parents are the customers) than any other professional and that it isn't unreasonable to expect them to engage people at all levels and types and still perform successfully.  You and your little friends are arguing that teachers can't handle the same demands that many professionals (or anyone else with a job, really) can handle and that they need to be treated like sensitive children else they will take out their frustration or incompetence or lack of professionalism on minors.

Tell me again which one of us has more respect for the teaching profession? [/quote] Let it go. You are digging yourself in deeper. THIS is why the teacher doesn't want to be bothered with you. There is your answer. [/quote]

That's a cheap and obvious exit you made out the back door, my dear.  Tell me why you don't give teachers the same level of respect and expect them to perform as all other professionals must?  I do; why don't you. [/quote]  You can't see the forest for the trees. Self-awareness would do you good. Go out and enjoy the beautiful weather today. I know I am on my way to nice street festival. Come join us![/quote]

Would LOVE to, but can't  Husband is at H Street Fest while I'm home doing work.  You see, I have clients who ask inane questions and demand attention on issues that are beneath me and my expertise, but because these are my clients and customers I need to treat them respectfully and take the time to educate them in a way that doesn't alienate them. Because in my world (outside DCPS) I'd be unemployed if I replied dismissively with the explanation that "I'm a professional" or "I don't do PR" or if I just ignored them.  So I'm home today doing work and servicing my clients because my job involves more than just opining on my area of expertise.    [/quote]

But the students are my clients, not you. That is the problem you don't seem to understand. I love to help parents, but my students come first.[/quote]

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