Saturday, February 26, 2000
Here's what we love/hate about teachers
BY KRISTA RAMSEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Teachers are from Neptune, parents are from Pluto.
And the next interplanetary mail drop is a few million light years away.
This, we know, is not true. It's just how it feels sometimes. We communicate a million things with each other - Johnny has pink eye or the school carnival needs cookies - but the most important matters between school and home never get said.
Unless one of us is rip-roaring mad.
So, here, in the name of simple honesty, are some of the things that drive parents bananas. Teachers, principals — and bus drivers, custodians, superintendents, educational assistants — let me know the things parents do that drive you crazy, or make your day, and I'll print your side of the story as well.
Meanwhile, for our part ...
We hate it when ...
We really hate it when you assign a project, our kid puts endless amounts of time into it, gets on the bus with his heart in his hand, and then you barely look at it. How can you miss the hurt on his face? At home that night, we try to pick up the pieces.
“I know Mr. Smith really liked your Aztec village, Nick. He probably was so amazed he didn't know what to say.”
“No, Mom, he just put it on the stack with everybody else's.”
That's a moment he'll never forget, and one we can never replace.
Principals, we hate it when you refuse to deal with a weak teacher. We know they're showing movies all the time and droning over the notes they've used for a decade. You know it, too. If you don't address this, what exactly is your job?
We hate it when you tolerate bullying. There are some situations a parent can't see from home, and some things our children won't tell us. We depend on teachers to address social difficulties, even when they're messy and hard to deal with. And we don't mean just in elementary school. Some of the worst bullying goes on in high schools.
But we love it when ...
We love it, however, when you find a way to chip through the shell of our quiet average little kid. You notice him, and the heavens open and the sun begins to shine.
We hate fakey good news publications that make it sound like this is Lake Woebegone. We especially hate this when test scores dropped like a rock, the levy failed and the arts program is being cut. Tell us how things really are, what you are doing to make them better and what you need from us.
We love it when our kid does something bad but you don't banish him to back-row Siberia for life. If we don't believe in him and you don't believe in him, who will?
We hate dictatorial rules that get in the way of learning. Write in red ink and lose credit for the assignment. Vary one iota from the official outline and do the whole thing over.
We hate homework assignments that our kids never understood in the first place, and we can't make heads or tails of either. Homework is not a tool to make our kids feel like a failure. (And, yes, this sometimes happens even when our kids do pay attention in class.)
We love teachers who pass out their home phone number, send our kids postcards during winter break, call us with small good news. We don't expect it, we just love it.
We hate it when you keep trotting our kids out to sell things. Also, who decided we needed two sets of school pictures a year, school jewelry and keepsakes? We're tired of the growing list of things to buy.
We love teachers who care enough to make things fun. Bus calls. Lunch line. Classroom clean-up. Thomas Hardy. (Or any thee of the four.) Oh, and we'd prefer not to meet you rushing out of the school before our kids do at the end of the day, or talking to your colleagues in the hallway instead of teaching our kids in the classroom.
And could you please have our kids wash their hands before lunch? And must you pick favorites? And we're drowning out here in worksheets ....
Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202, or e-mail her at krista_ramsey@hotmail.com.
RAMSEY ARCHIVE
