I would like to think that I am very fortunate in my job situation. I have an awesome principal, a fabulous staff, and some really awesome families that have helped make my first teaching job a really good one. However, I sit in some of my graduate classes and listen to some of the issues coming out of the public school systems from a teacher’s perspective, and I am shocked at what they have to put up with. You never get to meet with your co-teacher? You never have a prep where you can work with your co-teacher? You never talk to your principal? You never know where your classroom is going to be by the first day of school? Ridiculous stuff.
Recently, a teacher was punished because she posted a blog much like this one bashing students and parents in her school. She kept it anonymous, she never named her school or any names in any of her rants. But while reading some of her postings, I couldn’t help but understand where her frustration is rooted. And, in a way, I can relate.
She is in a public school where there probably isn’t a lot of support. Obviously they didn’t support her opinion, even though it was totally within her rights to post something anonymously. She was clearly frustrated with having to put up with parents who didn't raise their kids when they got home, or kids who show disrespect at home, and carry it over into the classroom, or the kids who have no work ethic with parents who don't push them to succeed. Frankly, I would be frustrated too if the majority of my kids were like that. Fortunately they are not, but I know a lot of schools deal with these problems with many many kids. And while watching her being interviewed, she stated something about schools being like a small corporation: we are trying to please the customer. And this I can see.
More and more, I am seeing a different kind of parent in schools. A parent who is relying on their child’s teacher to do the rearing of the child. To teach them how to interact with their peers. To tell them they can be successful people. Of course, I am happy and willing, more than willing, to do those things, to an extent. But for some kids, they only get it from us. They don’t get it from home. It is not our job to raise your kids. We have our own, or we want some of our own at some point. We don’t need yours too.
For instance, a parents asks that we email them each day to let them know how their child was that day. Talk to them? Or, if they ask (or just inform) that we make sure their child gets thisandthis done by the end of the day. Teach them responsibility? Or if a parent informs us that their child will be turning something in late when they know we don’t accept late work. Teach them accountability? Teach them at home, and sure enough, it will carry over into the classroom.
Maybe it is the fact that a parent can contact us with a click of a button now, and don’t we all know that we can say things via email we would never ever say to someone’s face. Or, it might be the changing family dynamics, with more families needing more support because they lack it at home. Or, it could be that education is now seen as a right, and therefore it becomes anyone’s right to step in and tell us how to do what we do. But the dynamic is changing. In my own experience, my parents were very very hands-off when it came to my teachers, and never stepped in unless they were asked to or they noticed something very wrong that I had done. But the teacher was always right until proven otherwise. I don’t want to pretend I am perfect; sometimes, I need to be reminded to keep my head on straight or reevaluate something. And that is fair.
I don’t want to discredit the families that make teaching marvelous, who are always willing to help, and who won’t question us unless they really feel the need to. The families who have raised their kids before they step into the classroom, so they have little-to-no redirection needed, just a friendly reminder here and there. These kids are great to work with because you know you have support at home, and you know they do too.
Although I cannot support the way that teacher got out her aggression (there were some swear words), she is right about one thing: the truth hurts and we cannot be a business that relies on making the customer happy. That is a disservice to the child and our schools. I didn’t become a teacher to be a parent. I became a teacher to accommodate appropriately, to teach in the best manner, and to guide in a way that will help make them better people to each other and for society. That is where I find my purpose.
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