Parents of Students

This blog addresses prompt five. I can see many challenges arising when dealing with children's parents. Every parent will react differently with teachers. I know in my class I'm tutoring there is a little boy whoes mom begged and pleaded with my teacher saying that her boy was a genus and he needed to move up to more advanced classes. I understand that she only wanted the best for her son but he really wasn't ready for the more advanced classes. He didn't even talk in class! The mother went home very mad. I'm sure at times I might have to deal with parents who think that their child is absolutely gifted. I will just have to be sensitive not to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't want to tell her that her child can't do it, I just want to let her know that it is very hard and his grades do not reflect the kind of effort needed. It is a hard subject but it must be done.

Another day, in my teacher's class, some older boys visited and stole a girl's cell phone. I guess the phone cost $300 and the mother was furious. She blamed everything on my teacher when it wasn't his fault. My teacher knew the boys that took the phone and he eventually got it back with some trickery. =) However, it must have been really frustrating to deal with the mother who was screaming at him. I don't know how I would react to that. I would obviously need to keep calm but it would be hard. I would tell her that her child shouldn't even have had the cell phone in the first place but we will try to get it back. I'm not sure what my teacher ended up doing.

These are just problems that arose during the time I was there but there would be other times where I would have to meet with all parents face to face. I am talking about parent teacher conferences. These can be a problem if parents don't come or can not speak very good English. I would try to get everyone's parents' email so I could email them if they did not come to the parent teacher conferences. It is important to tell parents if their child isn't doing as good as they can do. It is also important to tell parents when their child is doing outstanding. If their was a language barrier I would want to know in advance. I would ask my students if they could talk to me privately if their parents could not come because of something cultural or linguistic. If there was a problem then I would try to get a translator (someone I know personally) or have to email them something so they can translate it at their own pace. I understand that parents only want the best for their children and I am absolutely willing to work with them to get them all the help they need so they know how the most important part of their child's life is going.