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I'm a teacher and that about sums it up....Sad but true.
I have one girl who, literally, sits in my class, arms folded on her chest and stares intently into the corner (eyes away from me) all hour. I was reprimanded for calling on her because I embarassed her. Her parents are demanding I do something because she's failing. Sorry...SHE needs to do something to stop that from happening.
AMEN to that!!!! I don't know how this happened either. It's really, REALLY sad.
Some want to blame Dr. Spock and the Self Esteem Movement but I'm not so sure.
I remember when my son was in 2nd grade - he's 30 now- and he got a bad grade on a paper because he did not put his name on the paper but his teacher figured out whose paper it was. She put a note on the paper and sent it home.
At a regularly scheduled conference with teacher and son I thanked her for giving him the lesson of how important it is to follow directions. I told him it was not the responsibility of the teacher to figure out whose paper it was and it made her job so much harder. She burst into tears explaining how unusual it was for a parent to back her up for doing her job. She explained most parents would have debated her about how unfair it was to punish the child for a "simple" mistake. I felt so sorry for her.
Years later she told me when it got really bad and she was so discouraged she would remember how I respected her and taught my child the same.
I can't understand how some parents don't see they are shortchanging their kid's education by always making the teacher the enemy.
Today I have 2 nine year olds in public schools and we are blessed to have a great school system. I'm still trying to teach my kids to respect their teachers and to not blame others for their own shortcomings.
Apparently we are in the minority.
When my son first started school it was in China, there it is a little different to say the least, there when he was not receiving good grades it wasn't him or the teachers that had to explain why, it was I who had to explain why I didn't make him do the homework or why I didn't push him to study more, the teacher teaches ( and very well ) the student listens and learns, the parents enforce what the teacher has been teaching and if he would have still had bad grades at the end of the year he would have had to repeat that grade, none of this " no child left behind BS".
I'm a teacher and that about sums it up....Sad but true.
I have one girl who, literally, sits in my class, arms folded on her chest and stares intently into the corner (eyes away from me) all hour. I was reprimanded for calling on her because I embarassed her. Her parents are demanding I do something because she's failing. Sorry...SHE needs to do something to stop that from happening.
Sounds like there is something going on that makes her feel that way, like maybe some sort of anxiety.
What's so sad about it? We're asking more questions nowadays, and putting more people through a system of checks and balances than just the kids. Obviously, parents shouldn't storm up to the schools with that kind of attitude. But nor should they accuse the child of being lazy or apathetic when it's often more complex.
And might I point out, it is a minority of parents today who want to raise hell at their kids' schools. But it was a MAJORITY of parents who, back in "the good old days", would immediately punish the child for bad grades, asking no questions and accepting no explanations (aka "excuses").
I don't get it. You have the books, you have all sorts of online resources no other generation had, you have your parents...how is it just the teacher's fault again?
Some want to blame Dr. Spock and the Self Esteem Movement but I'm not so sure.
I remember when my son was in 2nd grade - he's 30 now- and he got a bad grade on a paper because he did not put his name on the paper but his teacher figured out whose paper it was. She put a note on the paper and sent it home.
At a regularly scheduled conference with teacher and son I thanked her for giving him the lesson of how important it is to follow directions. I told him it was not the responsibility of the teacher to figure out whose paper it was and it made her job so much harder. She burst into tears explaining how unusual it was for a parent to back her up for doing her job. She explained most parents would have debated her about how unfair it was to punish the child for a "simple" mistake. I felt so sorry for her.
Years later she told me when it got really bad and she was so discouraged she would remember how I respected her and taught my child the same.
I can't understand how some parents don't see they are shortchanging their kid's education by always making the teacher the enemy.
Today I have 2 nine year olds in public schools and we are blessed to have a great school system. I'm still trying to teach my kids to respect their teachers and to not blame others for their own shortcomings.
Apparently we are in the minority.
I think that back then the extreme parents were more of a minority. I can see where parents would have argued the name thing but failing a test would not have been blamed on a teacher. I remember my 3rd grade teacher, however. For whatever reason she did NOT like me. I would get 100% on all my work and then get "F's" on my report cards (actually 1's, they graded on a 1-3 scale with 1 being the worst). My parents DID have a little chat with her about that after first quarter, things didn't get any better second quarter so they brought in all of my papers I brought home and had a meeting with the teacher AND principal...the teacher got in deep do-do over that. Now, if I wasn't getting 100's on all my work and deserved the grades, I would have been in deep do-do at home .
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Her parents are demanding I do something because she's failing. Sorry...SHE needs to do something to stop that from happening. 
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