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I have issue with this "It's just as challenging for parents to deal with teachers. "
Parent's are dealing with maybe 8 teachers a year, teachers are dealing with upwards of 200+ parents a year. Its REALLY not the same thing at all.
Second, your personal experience with your child IS relevant but it does not replace decades of research, decades of personal experience teaching, years of professional training, graduate degrees in one's field or the dictates of administrators and the state.
Teachers do value a parent's opinion but it is ONLY their opinion. Sometimes it is well educated but frequently it is impossible for parents to separate their emotions from the most emotional of subjects, their children. When someone is as emotional about something as parents should be about their children it means that their opinions are frequently not objective. That is a fact.
You're misunderstanding me. I meant my experience with terrible teachers is relavant to the discussion.
Advocate, absolutely! All parents should advocate for their children. No one is asking parents not to do that. It would go against nearly a million years of instinct.
Me either but thank you for the support!
I tend to agree with you as well based on that old saying, "too many cooks...." My daughter has had great teachers and bad teachers, luckily its been mostly the former, even when she had downright bad (and occasionally just plain old wrong) I still take a back seat. And I am a teacher. She has learned just as much (even if it isn't found on a state test) from the bad teachers, sometimes the most important thing of all, how she can teach herself.
If I was hovering she would never of learned that skill and sooooo many more.
That's it! "Too many cooks..." There are many examples in the professional world where a "client" or "customer" coming in with their "knowledge" of a situation can really gum up the works. I think education is one of these professions.
That's it! "Too many cooks..." There are many examples in the professional world where a "client" or "customer" coming in with their "knowledge" of a situation can really gum up the works. I think education is one of these professions.
You may have hit the nail on the head! I think the core problem is that parents view themselves as the client/customer.
In the normal business world, the client/customer's wishes take precedent, not so in education, nor should it be the norm.
That doesn't bother me. It's becoming very common for people in many professions to blend their personal and work lives. I've done personal stuff at work and I've brought work home. The lines are becoming blured in many professions, especially white collar professions. If we want to treat teachers are professionals, we shouldn't take issue with how they manage their work/life balance. And just because a sub isn't as educated, doesn't make it any more valid to judge. If anything, certain low paying, mundane jobs have a lot of downtime. It often creates more work for professionals to find busy work for such workers when it's easier to simply pay them a low wage and let them read a book---or write out Christmas cards. If anything, it sounds like you just don't like your SIL and it bugs you that she's got an easy mommy gig that works with her children's school schedule.
Of course that is what it sounds like to you , Hopes. You never fail to input a criticism of someone's personal relationship or their reasons behind their thinking...
In any case, I happen to care for my family member ( a cousin, not sil) very much, but I feel it is wrong that someone gets paid to make out Xmas cards or whatever it is they are doing that is not work related. I don't come from a career field that even allowed much downtime so I can't relate to that.
I just feel that it would bother me if I was a teacher ,that someone can come in and do PART of my job when they have no qualifications to be doing so. Especially if they are a long term sub.
I am not judging someone for being a sub, I never said that. I am saying that if I was a teacher it would bother me that someone can come in and do part of my job and not have the qualifications to do so. In Western NY there are no qualifications needed other than to pass a civil service test, period.
You may have hit the nail on the head! I think the core problem is that parents view themselves as the client/customer.
In the normal business world, the client/customer's wishes take precedent, not so in education, nor should it be the norm.
I think you are absolutely correct. That is what I was getting at with my armchair expert comment. I think each child's education plan must come from the school/teacher, with a huge amount of input from the parents, but many parents think it should be the other way around.
I'm guessing that the requirements for certification posts are with regard to the public school system?
I have worked in a couple of private schools during my career and certification was not necessary in those schools. About five years ago, I was at one private school and there was a retired MD teaching biology, a retired lawyer teaching law and a retired accountant teaching economics. These were people that in their hearts always wanted to teach and had years of experience and wisdom in their chosen field. The kids and parents LOVED them. The year before I got there, a retired computer programmer was teaching the AP CS class.
A certification doesn't automatically mean a person will be a good teacher. It shows on paper that they passed an exam. I know people who became educators because they wanted summers and all the days/weeks that they get off. They mailed it in in college, put minimal effort into their TA experience and graduated with a piece of paper. I'll take a professional with no certification who is in love with sharing their knowledge and expertise with children over an apathetic certified teacher.
Hopes, I didn't realize your son was 16 at the time. I get it now.
I'm not sure just what you're arguing here, but in my district, and I daresay most districts, teachers get paid for this extra time, either in money or extra days off.
There is one other thing I want to point out which may be the case with some teachers. Dealing with difficult to impossible parents really has an effect on a person and even if it's only two out of 30, it really does affect you. You grow a shell and some people that cannot keep their emotions in check will begin to view every inquiry, however innocent it is, as the parent undermining them as a teacher and will be both offended and defensive. That is an issue that they need to put in check and keep in mind that not every parent is out to get them or look down on them.
Someone mentioned that maybe subs could do administrative tasks during "specials" or planning. A couple problems with that: What "administrative" tasks? Inputting grades? Not without the teacher's password to the on-line grading system. Responding to homework requests from Guidance? Not without knowing what to send down. Making copies? Not without the teacher's super secret PIN for the copy machine. Correcting tests? Objective maybe but not the essays we're all required to have on our tests (including Math) now. Besides, I wouldn't want to subject a sub to that drudgery.
A story on subs correcting tests: many, many years ago I subbed for a teacher who left 3 weeks of tests and quizzes for me to correct while he was out for a couple days. They didn't get done.
As far as doing Christmas cards while at lunch, most teachers have a duty free lunch period, so should subs.
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Sometimes my thoughts don't always get across in the way I mean them to.
