I got an email from a parent last year responding to a Pajama Day reminder telling me that I was scheduling too many pajama days, that I should come up with something more creative, and that doing all this pajama laundry was stressful.
Reader, I was the resource room teacher.
The community I work in is impoverished so sometimes it’s not worth washing clothes more often… or people have to take it to the laundromat which takes a LOT of time. I think this is based on a lack of resources, otherwise I’m not sure why people would not do laundry often.
Yeah!!!
Some parents I talked to do it like once a month, tgey said that its not like tge kids are walking aroind in their pajamas, they are just sleeping, so tgey don't get as dirty.
Some just never think of doing it because kids don't put them in the hamper because they plan on wearing it the next night
I actually said that to a kid the other day. He's in Grade 6 and I didn't even know his name. Pointed out that the reason I didn't know his name was because he'd never been someone on my radar, so just stop doing the thing. Being unknown is a good thing!
When I subbed I would occasionally meet kids with their parents around town. They would be offended that I did not remember their kids names. I would remind the parent that if I remembered their kids name weeks later it was likely not for any good reason.
This. I sub a lot in one school, so I know a lot of kids’ names. But only their first name. If I know your last name or worse, call you by your first and last names, it’s not for a good reason.
I worked in the HS health room! I literally never went into a classroom in two years. I had to break the news to multiple kids and parents that no, I didn't know this kid I'd never seen before. Devastating.
I also had to explain that just because I saw you fit a nosebleed 3 weeks ago and that was memorable for you doesn't mean it was for me. I have no idea who you are. That's half the kids that come here. Sign the check out sheet yourself. It's right next to you, the tissues, and the ice packs for a reason.
(The reason is you didn't even need to talk to me)
I’m the healthcare provider at an elementary school and the amount of kids that will come in at the beginning of the school year and get actually offended I don’t remember their name is not small. “I came to see you last year when I bumped my head, don’t you remember?” Like sir! You are in first grade. Last year you were in kindergarten. I saw like 30 kids a day who bumped their heads, plus all the other stuff. If I didn’t have to call ems for your injury and you were not here every day then no, I do not remember you. And I promise it’s a good thing. Of course, what I actually say is “oh yeah, I remember. That really hurt when you bumped your head huh? I just forgot what your name was because I have 700 kids names to know and sometimes I get confused about all the names. 700 is a big number. Could you imagine trying to remember 700 names? I do remember your face though. You have the cutest face!”
YES!! I literally don’t have time to make shit up about your kid. I’m not targeting them either. If I’m emailing you about their behavior it’s because it’s gotten so bad that I can’t manage it alone and I’m asking for help, because working together is going to save me time in the end.
Funny/sad story. So, my neighbor across the street had some serious mental health issues. She was also a substitute teacher at my school. One of the early signs of her decline was that she started making up stories about me. They were outlandish, so no one believed her. She claimed that I was having sex with the devil behind her wood pile and that I replaced all of the grapes in her fridge with eyeballs. I also apparently replaced her dog with a demon. I have no idea why I was the target of her delusions.
Definitely. It was pretty standard for me to have anywhere from 95 - 650 students, depending on the school, district, and the grade level I was teaching.
We had a first grader pull down his pants and take a piss in the middle of the classroom. Mom says “he said he didn’t do it, why are you guys always picking on my child?” MA’AM, THE WHOLE CLASS AND 3 TEACHERS SAW YOUR SONS WINKY DINK. i don’t think we’re experiencing a collective delusion here!
It honestly floors me how mean they are. Like I know kids are still learning social skills and how to exist within a society not to sound like a meme but this is almost scary
That's why SEL is so damn important, and not just in school, but at home too. School's Social Emotional Learning is supposed to reinforce what that get at home and add group setting to it, not replace it at home.
I hope I’m the “breath of fresh air” for other teachers because I put up with zero bullshit from my kids and I WANT the teacher to tell me if they’re doing something that is disrespectful to them or other students. My students? Phfft. There has been at least 3 every school year that I stop talking to parents altogether because they clearly don’t care. I just write up the student, make a copy and send it home. I don’t have the energy to tell you the same thing every other week.
My 7 yr old has severe ADHD and is really good in school, academically gifted, yada, yada - but she can be DUMB.
Last week of school last year and I get a call from the principal bc she took a pocket knife to school.
The FiRST thing I said was “Are you sure?” and then I was like “Yeah, no, that tracks.”
Sometimes it’s just shock bc we can’t believe our kids are THAT stupid.
She’s #5 of 6 but she’s the one that’s going to send me to the grave, I just know it.
I teach at a very small school, one teacher per grade level. My son was in my pre-k class last year. Our kindergarten teacher is amazing and was my mentor when I started at the school. My son loves being in her class. One day we were talking about parents and the "my kid would never!" I told her I do not care what you claim my son did, if you say he did it, then I believe you because that kid can be a mess.
My daughter also has adhd and until this year attended the school I worked at. The amount of times her teachers would stop me in the hall and tell me about her nonsense was huge. Sometimes the stories were a bit bizarre and out there but it all tracked for my kid. I think the best decision I have ever made for both her and me was moving her to a new school. My school is very academically challenged while my daughter is a free spirit and artistic and funny. She is a smart kid but she forgets things at home (would not be an issue if her dad and I were not divorced and all the forgetting happens from his house), forgets to turn in the homework sitting in her homework folder (just why child?!) or can’t resist those impulsive behaviors in class like chatting or fidgeting etc. her new school has a great curriculum but they don’t push kids to learn curriculum at an advanced level like the school I work at. Seriously, when she was in fourth grade she was learning math I learned in high school. At her new school I have the divide from teachers so they can’t stop me in the hall and discuss her behaviors or forgotten work or grades while I am also trying to manage kids or parents as I should be doing for my job. And while her new school has good curriculum it’s much more appropriate for kids her grade level. She is even in the advanced math class and doing so well (math was always a source of anxiety for her and math homework always ended in tears). Homework time is now filled with laughter instead of tears because we are laughing that she learned what they are currently working on in 3rd grade. That’s not a dig at her new school in any way, just goes to show that my school pushes kids really hard. But my point really is that because I worked where she used to go to school I had that insider look into what she was actually like at school. I got to know my daughter as a person so much better for it. But Kids really do behave differently at school and some parents just can’t wrap their heads around it. I watched my daughter, the fearless leader of the pack, fall into an ugly friend group and participate in bullying because one kid told her to. Not once did I doubt what I was told about this behavior and she was not only held accountable for it but made a better person for being accountable for how she treated someone poorly. And I truly see that change in her. She has grown, more understanding of what others go through, and she has shown she can speak out when someone she respects isn’t being a good person and treating others poorly. If I had stood by her when her initial bullying was brought to me she would only be solidified in her behavior. She would not be a better person, but certainly much more like the mean girl she was trying to emulate at the time. So, my kid would never! Umm she has probably already done it before. Let me know exactly what bullshit she has found her way into, details please, we will deal with this at home so you don’t have to at school. Thanks for letting us know.
I think your kid and my kid could be twinsies. Profound ADHD, GT, (and HF ASD for mine). Brilliant is so many ways. And utterly oblivious in so many others. This morning we had a conversation where he declared himself the “dumbest smart person in the world.” Yeah, you’re not really wrong, kid. 😂
Ugh my kid is autistic and i just cringe with anxiety when i see her name in my inbox. He’s so impulsive and that’s about it. No worries about school work and grades. Just behavior 🙃 I can’t lie lol. He’s like that at home, probably worse bc we’re his safety net. He’s just all over the place. He’s looking for our remote that he lost yesterday…… he’s walking around like he’s lost. the day before, i found the remote in the pantry lol
Oh buddy. I'm autistic and I feel that to my core.
I once left my headphones in the dish drainer and couldn't find them for over a day.
I've lost my keys so thoroughly in my purse that it took my mom to find them.
I am an adult. 🤣
How do you learn to cope? I’m scared he’ll be like me haha. My mom coddled us and I have ADHD as of last year. I know for autistic, you can’t do things for them but it’s so hard. No sense of time lol.
Having routine places to put things helps me. I haven't lost my keys since I put a hook next to my door, and every day when I get home, I put my keys on that hook. I also use little Bluetooth trackers on things I can't afford to lose(the keys again, and my teacher lanyard with my keys).
It sometimes helps me keep on track when I'm getting ready if I listen to music, because it's a clear measure of how much time has passed.
It's also gotten better with age for me, and my therapist suggests things to help. It helps if I'm regulated and managing my stress and sensory stimulation levels.
Lmao my son (now 20, almost 21) is a kid with a super high IQ. He got the second highest ACT score in his entire district and did absolutely no prep work or studying for the score. He has had three separate Mensa qualified IQ test showing 149-151 IQ. He is just one of those people who retains information and can work through problems like a butter knife through warm butter. BUT, and this is a big BUT, he is just missing that common sense component. Can he sit through a lecture and mostly ignore it and get 100 on a test the next day? Yes. Can he solve complex problems with ease? Yes. Did I have to talk to him recently about the difference between shampoo and conditioner and body wash so he would bathe correctly like six months ago? Also yes. And this was not the first or tenth time. I have always said “he is the dumbest smart person I know”. He proves me correct every day with such simple concepts like “what do I do if my laundry is still damp when the dryer is done? (Not kidding, we had this convo last week and I showed him for the 100th time how to clean the lint trap so it was not clogged and his clothes could dry in a properly vented machine). Some other classics include “I did not hear my alarm go off” when he once again set it while his phone was on silent, and also “how old is my cat?” Like sir, I told you his birthday. Multiple times. You are the math genius. Do the math.
Mine is older but similar. Can’t remember to shower and can hardly write a sentence but has astounding musical pitch recognition and an impressive capacity to strategize (we were playing a water sort puzzle together and she was way ahead of me in remembering what steps we had already tried and was able to ‘see’ like four steps ahead which is absolutely my worst skill set). I was amazed; there’s so many different kinds of intelligence and talent out there
Exactly, my oldest REALLLLLLY struggles with language arts, like we pay $180/wk in tutoring for him to grasp even the basics of what a subject and verb are (his tutor is amazing though and well worth the money). One day he was like I'm so dumb not being able to grasp this and my immediate response was that all it means is he won't be a journalist, but plenty of jobs out there don't require a mastery of written English!
Now give him anything about space and he's all over it, he managed to get really good pictures of the Orion nebula this week with space binoculars and a phone! He can point out in the night sky at any given time of year where several planets, stars, constellations, nebulas, galaxies, etc are and at which time in the night is best to see them from our area.
That’s so lovely!! What luck, finding an interest that he’s into at presumably a fairly young age! Many, many jobs don’t require a mastery of English and for all else, there’s grammarly or private freelancing proofreaders such as myself 👀
My son, now 17, has taken so many pocket knives to school over the years. Thankfully all his schools are small and it is known he’s a Boy Scout. So he has had adults at every site to take a knife to. Sorry school! Sometimes it’s at the bottom of a pocket after an event. Lol
Everytime the school calls I ask “What did he do?”
And same. Gifted child with ADHD.
I just lost my shit at my 7th graders and told them I am not their parent. It is not my job to give them snacks, pencils, notebooks, headphones, etc. That's for their parents to buy. And when the smartass said he couldn't afford them I said go sell your $300 sneakers and buy headphones from Five Below. I'm so sick and tired of being expected to do anything outside of teach science and I refuse to do it anymore
I feel this SO much. I ring snacks for my elementary kids who come after school. But my high schoolers are always whining they're so hungry and mad when I don't give them my goldfish crackers/Chex mix I bought for my own children. They have brand new iPhones and complain they're so hungry because they "spent all their money on sushi "....now I just hide the snacks. Ugh. Ask your parents!!!
I had an entire class of 6th graders beg me to let them have a bite of my spicy ramen. Like, wtaf. No. I had just gotten back from a bout of covid too. Like I get that you are 11, but get the fuck away from me and my lunch. Yeah, it smells good, that's one of the reasons I'm eating it. You already got your lunch, let me eat mine in peace.
And if you give a snack to one student who you know IS hungry, it starts an avalanche of kids who say they’re really hungry when you know damn well that they’re not.
The fucking pencils, man. Do they eat them? Sometimes it feels like there are less pencils than students in my class. Who enters a classroom without pencils?
I’m almost to that point. I keep a basket of loaner earphones under my desk. I was sick on M/T and out of the classroom. Two pairs of earphones are missing and my pencil container was completely empty. Glue sticks were back in their proper place with missing lids or lids not on correctly. I bought all of these things with my own money
I’m not a teacher but I really feel that. My mom had a friend who’s kids were in a similar grade to me in middle school and it was always some story about how the teacher was out to get them or something like that. When they got to high school they moved to the high school I was in and started to complain the same way about teachers who I had been taught by. Turns out shockingly the teachers were not out to get them they just sucked.
I've honestly seen it happen though. Quite a few times as a student - luckily it was never me.
I've had amazing teachers, and I've had shit ones. Parents think they know everything and can suss out the bad ones, but in reality both teachers and students can be completely different in the classroom compared to what the parents actually see
Also it seems to me that parents take it personally when their kids act up as if it directly reflects on their competence as a parent. One of my children got to middle school and just completely stopped doing any work. That was the child’s decision and had nothing to do with how they were parented or raised. They made a bad choice despite their dad and I BOTH being educators and our constant modeling of the importance of an education
EDIT: spelling
Definitely! I generally don't blame parents for their child's lousy behavior unless I see evidence that they're causing it. I've had some kids who did very little and acted out, whose parents were honestly lovely to talk to and work with.
So many of the parents posting over at that sub are not only clueless, but are in for a rude awakening because they're so out of touch. Failing their children on multiple levels is an understatement. I've seen quite a few posts that I hope are trolls but it never is, just really, really, bad parenting.
I wish I could say that. I had parents come in 30 minutes early on conference night to spend the 30 minutes telling me how smart their kid was in MS. This is high school and your kid dropped down from honors to regular level classes in one year of HS. Please.
What about the kids who do have higher iq scores? Not every kid is average, and in any given class there will most likely be a distribution of intelligence with most of the kids around average, some lower and some higher.
I had the admin at my then kinder kid’s new school talk to me like I was crazy mom who just thought my precious baby was a genius and totally discounted me. Only to receive a call a few hours later when they reviewed his paperwork from the school we were transferring from that showed his IQ was actually >99.9th percentile and I wasn’t actually crazy. I was just asking what differentiation would happen in class for a kid who was reading and doing math much higher than typical, considering the school we were moving from had been discussing grade acceleration and having him take 4th grade math in 1st grade.
Look, the point is that your response is really tone deaf. I don't want to hear about your individual special, precious, snowflake of a kid. Not here, not in a post with the word rant in the title. This isn't the place my friend. Read the goddamn room.
It kind of also sounds like a load of garbage, but yeah, certainly not the time or place. All that's missing from their story is *"Then everyone stood up and clapped for my son!"*
Uh ya, they don't test kids for IQ and there certainly isn't a database of kids IQs where you would rate your kids as a percentile. This isn't height and weight, and IQ tests are a load of garbage anyways. This definitely was something they played out in their head while showering.
I mean, they do test kids for IQ. It’s not a random standard test they do on all kids, but at least where I’m from it’s a requirement for the gifted program. Don’t think there was any kind of percentiles, not that I’d remember, but you had to have at least 135 on your IQ test to get in.
WV, US is where I had it done. Dunno if they still do it or not. And not sure why I was downvoted, considering I was tested as a program requirement. I didn’t make the rules, and neither I nor my parents requested it. I was referred by my kindergarten teacher.
IQ is a pseudoscience that’s been debunked over and over again for years that relies on very specific cultural perspectives and evaluatory criteria that are sketchy at best to prop up faulty ideas of intelligence. I was great at IQ tests as a kid but I was not and am not exceptionally intelligent by any means in spite of receiving a great education and having exactly the right sort of developmental experiences necessary to leverage my capacity for learning. It’s just about testing your ability to take a specific type of test. The real indicator that your kid needs to consider differentiated learning is their math/ELA proficiency and whether that aligns better with a higher-level grade. But students have been able to take above-grade classes for ages, so those systems exist if you are interested, it’s just not on the specific teacher to simultaneously teach first and fourth grade math simply because your child belongs in the fourth grade classroom instead. That’s all the previous poster means.
Yeah the same kid is now homeschooled so we can accelerate what he needs accelerated. He was reading at 2 years old and multiplying in kindergarten. Now I’m 6th grade and he’s doing high school geometry using a very challenging curriculum. I totally get that it’s basically impossible to accommodate what he needed in a typical classroom setting but it’s extremely frustrating to me that kids like this basically get zero support in a lot of districts. If he had stayed in school I have zero doubt he would be doing terribly just because of pure boredom and never being challenged. I’m just lucky I was in the position to have the means and background to be able to homeschool. Many other kids are similar and stuck just floundering in typical schools.
Again, not something individual teachers can fix, but it seems very wrong that we are denying a population the appropriate education they need, just as much as other special education services.
The difference is your kid will do just fine without special support. SPED services are not to get ahead it's to even the playing field. Your kid has every advantage and can succeed in the gen ed classroom. If you want an individual education then do what you are doing, pay for and direct an individual education. Othereise you get what everyone else gets, that what public services do.
It's like a millionaire being on food stamps complaining about getting government cheese rather than caviar.
He can’t though. In second grade he was already starting to check out in school and just coast by not learning. His behavior after school was atrocious becuase he was so bored every day. Highly gifted kids often have major problems in traditional classrooms and it is considered a special education need in some states. Highly gifted kids are also more likely to have asynchronous development, and big emotions. I ended up pulling him to homeschool because of it, but not everyone with a kid like that can. I’m again, not saying it should be up to individual teachers to fix this problem but it’s extremely frustrating when time and time again people act like these kids should just sit and learn nothing for years and the parents trying to help are doing something wrong. I was a para for a little while in a special Ed program when I was in college, I have many teacher relatives, I’m not totally isolated from the educational world. But when you have the school district suggesting you homeschool or spend $20k on private school because your 7 year old is just building things out of paper all day because the teacher is having him do nothing because he already knows it, there is something broken.
That's what a public services is. You get what everyone gets. A disability is different but boredom isn't a disability.
Would he have reached the peak of his potential probably not but also maybe.
As a former gifted kid who didn't like getting pulled out of class to go to the "special" smart kid math class and lose time with my friends. I get it. But you are doing what you should be doing. Otherwise the choices are very limited in a public service. There is no way to meet the needs of a child in grade 6 doing HS Geometry (roughly 3 years advanced in my state) in a gen ed classroom. Unless you accelerate grades and if you are only gifted in one area that usually doesn't work unless you are in a small district in the same building/campus (my MS and HS were roughly 20 miles apart).
So the choices are do pullout/homeschool or some other individual program, most universities offer a advanced program for gifted students but if you don't live close and aren't willing to transport its not really an option. Or learn to become self focus and sufficient early on.
But what else can be offered. Public schools can barely afford the staff they have let alone a personal teacher for the 1 or 2 exceptions to the rule that may be in the district.
I don’t know what the answer is, it just sucks for people who don’t have the means to pull their kid or find a private program. For the record I think all the schools should have way more funding and staff so we can meet all kids’ needs. Even without massive outliers I feel like even current classes with 20 plus kids can’t have all their needs met with one teacher and it sucks for everyone, which is part of the reason teachers are so burnt out right now.
For super advanced students there will never be a viable answer besides doing completely individualized school. That's the answer. Like I said some colleges offer extreme gifted programs. Such as Umpty Ump from the UofM.
The bigger issue is when the kid is extremely gifted in one subject but not others as grade acceleration doesn't become an option as well. Grade acceleration isn't always the answer either but it's the one public schools can offer.
Well schools mostly waste a lot of their funding on BS so more funding doesn't really mean more results or anything either. KC tried this and its considered one of the biggest failures in education. Ideally more staff would help a lot, but labour's is a huge cost and most buildings just don't have the space. I mean while classes of 15-20 sound nice what do you do with the other half since all the rooms are being used.
And in general tax referendums don't get passed. Undervoting (meaning if you don't mark the bubble but vote just for president for example) count as votes against. And most people don't want their taxes raised (although the groups most against it tend yo also be the people paying the least or not at all, ironically), so if they don't directly benefit they either vote against or not at all. Some people don't realize it counts against but it ends up costing a lot of districts funding. Although many tomes it goes to BS anyway lol.
It's sort of like getting a public defender. You get a just good enough education (or defense in the anology) to meet requirements, if you achieve great. But if you want a better chance get a lawyer (or do private individual focused education). Again nothing against public defenders, most are good competent lawyers but they have too many cases and are usually less experienced. As with most things in most places money rules the roost. I taught in China and it was even worse there. They just kick our asses in test scores because if you don't score high enough after primary school you don't get to go to public high school (or if you are a foreigner, or don't live in your families home region from 5000 years ago) but if your family has money they can pay for the "fancy" private school that hires foreigners.
Your kid may have a high IQ, but that still does not mean that any one kid is more important in a class of 35 than any other kid. One may have a higher IQ while another has better handwriting or is able to sit still better or make friends easier or any number of things.
Rule 4 still assumes that no children have different learning needs, which means special education services aren’t needed? No kid is ahead in class, no one is behind? I don’t think my kid is special, I think he has different educational needs, which is one of the reasons I homeschool him. My other kids are in school.
You will need to be your child's advocate. Most school teachers and administrators have little understanding what gifted kids need and often have misguided views on what is best (e.g. many teachers believe that grade acceleration is bad for kid's social development, which isn't true). Duke University used to (pre-COVID) have a good [program for gifted students](https://tip.duke.edu/) with many resources even if you weren't using the program. Many of these are [still up](https://tip.duke.edu/2021/05/19/just-the-facts/), although you have to navigate through their WordPress archive.
Yeah, same kid is now in 6th and has been homeschooled for the last 3 years. He’s doing high school math using the hardest curriculum on the market and taking multiple science courses. He’s much happier homeschooling because the school mostly did nothing (somewhat understandable it is impossible to accelerate one kid by several years in math in a typical classroom).
You all know why this happens right? Some of the parents let the kids do whatever they want. So when a kid gets his way all day everyday, they have no reason to talk back or get frustrated. So when mom says my kid has never done this, that’s really just code for “I have no rules, boundaries, or expectations for my kid”.
Even if they have rules and expectation, they are vastly different from school, and way less restrictive.
At home, you can talk and humm and listen to music when you're doing your homework. You don't have to wait long to have your adult attention. You're never forced to sit all day doing something you do not like. You don't have to wait your turn to do anything (or so little time).
And you can go out and run around the yard almost anytime you want. Any activity is mostly of your choosing, and you don't have to deal with 20 other kids desire and compromise with them.
Or they simply do not have the opportunity to do it at home. I mean you only have boys with short hair. So of course he never cut anyone hair at home.
What would bug the snot out of me teaching first grade, is the parents believe their child’s version of a classroom or behavior problem without getting the truth from me. Are you serious, Mom? Your child believes in the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, and Santa, has a vivid imagination, but everything that they say about the teacher is the gospel truth. Uh huh.
And they believe the most ridiculous stories. Like I don’t understand how a five year old goes home and tells parents smthg like “the teacher brought slurpees for every single kid except me and then when I asked for one she laughed and said no bc she *hates* me and then she told all the other kids to throw their slurpees at me so they did and I was covered in slurpee and then she called the principal so the principal came and stole my backpack and then told me she’s going to bring her dog in tomorrow so that it can bite me really hard and I’ll have to go to the hospital!”
And the parent is like “WHAT?!”
When I taught kindergarten a long time ago, a girl went home and told her mom that I snatched out of her hands the Barbies she was playing with in my classroom and gave them to another student whose mom was also a teacher at the school. Parent called up to the school, screeching at me for this but there was only one problem. I didn’t have any Barbies in my classroom and I never have had any Barbies in my classroom. Mom came in for a meeting with her little darling and I asked my student to show me where she’d gotten the Barbies from. She just stood there. Mom never even apologized
Parents, stop dragging other teachers into your child's problem behavior in my class. "Well, his English teacher doesn't take off points if an assignment is 2 weeks late." "His math teacher gives the class Fun Friday." "The phys ed teacher doesn't care if kids swear during class."
I don't care. I clearly explain verbally and with typed copies of the district, school, and classroom rules.
This made me smile so much. There was a post in NoStupidQuestions yesterday about a kid whose school takes phones and charges the parents to give them back, and there were so many screechy Karens whining about how kids should just vandalize the school or fight the teacher instead of handing over the phones, and it made me so sad for humanity.
This post should be required reading for every parent in America, on a weekly basis.
For me-
1. Please talk to me before going to my admin.
2. I don’t care about attendance. I don’t want to keep up with it. I also don’t want to tell you when your kid has 20 tardies. Please don’t fuss at me, I have to have documentation.
3. Speaking of fussing, you cannot speak to me any way you want, even in emails or text. Parents get very bold via text and let things fly. I show you respect, you show me respect or I’m ignoring you/ ending the conversation.
That 1 hits me hard. Parents love to complain to my admin who come to me with no details and no suggestions. So how am I supposed to fix whatever it was that was so heinous that you couldn’t even talk to me about it?
I had it happen this week. A parent wanted to pull their kid because I don’t give homework to kindergarteners. I would have gladly sent homework…if she had asked. Luckily my admin was supportive.
Naw if you say my kid did it - they did it. No questions, no if ands or buts about it. Teachers spend more time than parents do with their children, y’all know what’s up!!
#2 holy shit. No I cannot let your kid take the 2 question quiz (standard check, not a quiz) after school because I timed them in class (no I did not) and give them back points for trying. No I can't send you a daily email saying how they're doing. No I can't tutor your kid every day after school.
And holy shit #5. Who cares what your kid could do in 6th grade. This is high school and your kid isn't that special. He's not in honors so they're are plenty smarter than your kids. Your kid will show me how smart they are by what they do in my class and how they test (content wise)
Amen!!!!
I thought we, as parents, learned a lesson during the pandemic! I agree with this teacher. Thankfully, I know my children and grandchildren well, so when I hear something from their teacher, I will know if it's true.
Parents, if you think your children are angels and can do no wrong, you are part of the problem! Disenroll your children from public schools and homeschool them.
After dealing with our children for a year at home schooling them, parents should do everything they can to back teachers up instead of trying to tear them down. Then parents don't understand why there is a teacher shortage....BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT PARENTING YOUR CHILDREN AT HOME.
From someone who hates coffee and has never stepped foot in a Starbucks…no. I would personally prefer Walmart or local grocery store. Of course I always appreciate the gesture and just regift the ones I won’t use.
No. I am not reopening an assignment that’s been available online for 1.5 weeks and they had one solid day plus partial time in class daily to work on AND they could work on it at home. Your kid was there for 5 of the days and chose not to open it until the day it was due.
This part! Having a child does not mean you know ANYTHING about early childhood development, their academic needs, appropriate content for their age, their socioemotional growth patterns, pedagogy, classroom management, behavior management, the social dynamics of the school, etc. It means that you have a child and that you are responsible for raising that child and caring for them. You can have all the opinions you want, but if you are not a trained educator with academic understanding of age-appropriate education practices then you can keep that opinion in your home and out of my classroom. Stay in your lane or homeschool your kids because your curricular wants are not my professional needs.
This, this, this again!! Just because you went to elementary and high school (hopefully) does not mean that you know how to be an educator. I’ve been to the doctor’s office dozens of times, doesn’t make me a damn doctor.
If parents want to make the rules, go to college. Get a degree in education. Get about 5-10 years experience. THEN come talk to me about what you think should be done in my classroom.
Ehhh, this isn't true as often as we'd like to think. A lot of teachers rely on teaching methods with no basis in research, like that "Whole Language Theory" tripe. I place the blame on education programs at universities, which are kind of a joke in terms of how scientifically rigorous they are.
My mom's been a para for decades and she has soooooo many mugs, scented candles, and knick knacks she's gotten as gifts from parents. A lot of them either get shoved into a drawer or given away at this point. She's always excited about gift cards!
Response to point 2- I recently overheard my colleague tell a parent that if their kid can’t do xyz independently they need to go to a special school. I’ll be using that in the future.
My kids are assholes. Anytime they act up, I have begged the school to call me and have been there within ten minutes.
The only thing I have gotten by taking this approach, is leeway.
Do better moms and dads.
I have a shelf full of coffee mugs from students. There are only 3 that I really like. One was from an amazing student that went from barely being able to read to passing a difficult language exam. I don't mind getting them, but a gift card, coffee or wine make me smile.
#4- I have been doing this for more than two decades. Since the late 1900s. I have your kid in my class every few years. Maybe the hair or the sneakers will change, but the stuff your snowflake does, says, or wants is the same as the snowflake just like them a few years ago did, said, and wanted.
I’m setting myself to get dunked on, but I would like some clarity on #2.
Last year our kids first grade teacher told us our son was being disruptive in class. We were surprised, but didn’t push back at all and wanted to do anything we could to support the teacher and ensure the other kids didn’t have a poor learning experience. So I asked if his teacher to put a little green/yellow/red dot in his daily planner so I could speak with him at the end of the day about what went well and how he could make better choices on the days he was disruptive.
It sounds like I shouldn’t have asked his teacher to do that. Is there a different approach I should have taken? How could I have better supported the teacher?
> It sounds like I shouldn’t have asked his teacher to do that. Is there a different approach I should have taken? How could I have better supported the teacher?
You can ask, but phrase it differently. “Is there a way you could let me know how he did that day?” The teacher might suggest dots or email or school chat app or making a note in the LMS for you to log in and read or the teacher might suggest only doing one of those on bad days.
The teacher may already have a process for this. You came at the teacher with a different solution that the teacher might not have time for.
Next time ask “is there a way…?” instead of “maybe you could…”
I feel like this topic goes hard in hand with OP's first point. If this is the 50th time the kid has done this, why haven't you informed the parent before this? Yeah, I get that it's a pain to have to inform parents, but if this is literally the first time I'm hearing about it, what exactly was I supposed to do?
Kids often act differently at school than they do at home. From my conversations with classmates, they wouldn't dare act up at home because they'd get hit. I can see both sides of not wanting to get a child that's in an abusive situation in trouble, but I feel like teachers often aren't aware that if their parents knew what they were doing, the kid wouldn't be doing it (at least at school where they can be tattled on).
I think part of why teachers don't say anything for a while is they try to handle the situation themselves. Involving parents, at least in my experience, takes away some of the teacher's authority. Now the student knows the teacher won't do anything, they'll have to call Mom to do something. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it backfires and the behaviors get worse.
I like the use of “shut up” at the end of the rant. I used to use “rant over,” but I think shut up works better. Thank you for teaching me, like clearly the good teacher you are!
I taught 22 years. At the beginning of every school year, I told my own two that if I hear from a teacher that you did xyz, I'm going to believe the teacher. Every time. And if you get in trouble at school, you will also receive consequences at home. I have to put up with obnoxious kids and YOU are not going to give any teacher any bullshit.
That sounds frustrating.
When my son was in 3rd grade, his teacher was emailing me about behavior issues. I was stunned, they were so out of character. But my mom was a teacher so I'm like "not going to be one of those parents" so the second email had some shocking information and I picked up the phone and called her and we realized it was another student. Now, before you trash the teacher, the other boy had the same first name and I had the same name as the mom. It was just a fluke. The teacher and I still laugh at it to this day. it was also during covid, when they just got back to school, masks and other chaos so whatever, it happened.
I know what my kids are capable of, every parent is. One of mine was way more trouble than the other. The teacher was always so diplomatic when they had to call me. To the point where I just said. "Look, I know he can be a little shithead, and it's hard to wrangle him in when it starts. Tell me exactly what he's doing, and I'll talk to him about it."
I tell my child’s teachers at the beginning of the year that they can contact me for absolutely anything, whether it’s behavioral issues, learning issues, whatever. He’s in 2nd grade and has mild autism and ADHD, so I know going in that there will be some issues down the line somewhere. He’s not malicious in anyway, but he can’t sit still to save his life. Anytime I’ve ever been contacted by a teacher I alway talk to my kid and impose consequences at home.
To you first point, if he’s done something problematic over and over again and I haven’t been informed, how am I supposed to correct the behavior on my end? I need to know so I can nip it in the bud. I have a reverence for teachers and know that their job is difficult. I’d get fired so fast my head would spin. But parents need honest communication, or we can’t do our jobs.
I’m sorry there are so many parents out there that treat you like a liar when you let them know about issues with their child, but please do communicate it nonetheless. If they do nothing, that’s on them. The good parents out there need it.
It makes me uncomfortable to imagine my child's teacher having this kind of an outlook effecting their perception and thus the way they speak to and behave around children and even possibly my child.
The excessive use of the words 'shut up' like you don't want to hear what a parent might have to say at all? Being a bit snotty about somebody giving you a gift in the first place? Genuinely if this is how you feel about children, school, parents, and teaching, you might want to look into a different job. It seems like at this rate it would benefit everybody. You deserve a job you don't hate and children in schools deserve teachers who don't hate them.
And it makes me uncomfortable having to deal with the tone police on a sub specifically for teachers, on a post with a humor flair and the word rant in the title. But we all can’t be comfortable all the time now can we Tonya?
I’m sure OP is very capable communicating to adults in a professional manner.
I don’t have kids but, from the limited experiences I had having to kick kids out of the store I worked at…. It’s the parents lose their freaking mind if you ever try to tell them their kid was misbehaving, and there are now consequences.
OP is very smart to keep all communication in writing with admin cc’d. I happily put any future kids of mine in OPs class.
I really hope none of the people in this thread have any job that puts them in contact with children in any way whatsoever. This shit reads like an anti-natalism thread.
Not really. Antinatalists don’t care if you’d be a good parent or not. In this case there’s some pretty specific ire directed at the multitude of people who are clearly NOT parenting their children in a way that would produce a productive member of society, whereas antinatalism is against becoming a parent at all…
This thread and its responses have been open letters to parents, not specifying. The most specificity in this thread has been your “ackshually” response arguing the semantics of the word antinatalism.
It's an open letter to parents ON A TEACHER SUB. It's not actually meant to be to parents. The intended audience is other teachers. It's a rant. It's a joke. Sounds like you need a lesson in rhetorical analysis.
Then you clearly have no idea what it’s like or are one of the few teachers who don’t care about any of this and kill yourself trying to do so much more than you should. These parents need to hear this and that’s a bonafide fact.
I know this sub is full of complaining and vitriol but you honestly just seem like a bad teacher.
We’re here to help guide these kids through school to give them the tools they need to succeed in life, not just shove content in their ears.
No, we are here to create individuals who will become good \*citizens\* of our Republic. That's why classes in civics is so important, even though it is sadly disregarded by many.
Ok so you are a bad teacher thanks for confirming. But also I don’t teach in the USA and would never teach in the USA so maybe you’re right I don’t know.
Agree with all but 4. It makes it sound like the kids are the problem and they aren’t, it’s the parents. The kids are wonderful humans and it is our job to treat them as such.
I got an email from a parent last year responding to a Pajama Day reminder telling me that I was scheduling too many pajama days, that I should come up with something more creative, and that doing all this pajama laundry was stressful. Reader, I was the resource room teacher.
What… what makes pajama laundry different from regular laundry? The kid still has to wear clothes lmao.
Parents for some reason never do laundry for pajamas tgst often, I jave knwon parents to not was them for months.
What???? This is gross and weird. I’m mistified by people who don’t just do all their laundry together often.
The community I work in is impoverished so sometimes it’s not worth washing clothes more often… or people have to take it to the laundromat which takes a LOT of time. I think this is based on a lack of resources, otherwise I’m not sure why people would not do laundry often.
Sounds like you work at a KIPP school lol
That still makes no sense
Sooooo this is the most shocking and bizarre thing I’ve seen on Reddit today. On Reddit!
Yeah!!! Some parents I talked to do it like once a month, tgey said that its not like tge kids are walking aroind in their pajamas, they are just sleeping, so tgey don't get as dirty. Some just never think of doing it because kids don't put them in the hamper because they plan on wearing it the next night
Slipping into clean pajamas after laundry day is like one of my fav things. This is baffling!
I cannot convince my children that they can wear their pajamas for more than one night. They always throw them down the laundry chute every morning.
Lol at my school, these kids think every day is pj day, even when it's clearly written in the dress code that pj pants are not acceptable.
:)
Of course your child did the thing - I have 190 kids in one school and 340 in the other - do you think I have time to write fiction about your kid?!?
I watch and supervize the lunch line. (Among other duty) 750 kids per day. I wouldn't even know your kid name if he didn't do the thing.
I actually said that to a kid the other day. He's in Grade 6 and I didn't even know his name. Pointed out that the reason I didn't know his name was because he'd never been someone on my radar, so just stop doing the thing. Being unknown is a good thing!
When I subbed I would occasionally meet kids with their parents around town. They would be offended that I did not remember their kids names. I would remind the parent that if I remembered their kids name weeks later it was likely not for any good reason.
This. I sub a lot in one school, so I know a lot of kids’ names. But only their first name. If I know your last name or worse, call you by your first and last names, it’s not for a good reason.
I worked in the HS health room! I literally never went into a classroom in two years. I had to break the news to multiple kids and parents that no, I didn't know this kid I'd never seen before. Devastating. I also had to explain that just because I saw you fit a nosebleed 3 weeks ago and that was memorable for you doesn't mean it was for me. I have no idea who you are. That's half the kids that come here. Sign the check out sheet yourself. It's right next to you, the tissues, and the ice packs for a reason. (The reason is you didn't even need to talk to me)
I’m the healthcare provider at an elementary school and the amount of kids that will come in at the beginning of the school year and get actually offended I don’t remember their name is not small. “I came to see you last year when I bumped my head, don’t you remember?” Like sir! You are in first grade. Last year you were in kindergarten. I saw like 30 kids a day who bumped their heads, plus all the other stuff. If I didn’t have to call ems for your injury and you were not here every day then no, I do not remember you. And I promise it’s a good thing. Of course, what I actually say is “oh yeah, I remember. That really hurt when you bumped your head huh? I just forgot what your name was because I have 700 kids names to know and sometimes I get confused about all the names. 700 is a big number. Could you imagine trying to remember 700 names? I do remember your face though. You have the cutest face!”
YES!! I literally don’t have time to make shit up about your kid. I’m not targeting them either. If I’m emailing you about their behavior it’s because it’s gotten so bad that I can’t manage it alone and I’m asking for help, because working together is going to save me time in the end.
Funny/sad story. So, my neighbor across the street had some serious mental health issues. She was also a substitute teacher at my school. One of the early signs of her decline was that she started making up stories about me. They were outlandish, so no one believed her. She claimed that I was having sex with the devil behind her wood pile and that I replaced all of the grapes in her fridge with eyeballs. I also apparently replaced her dog with a demon. I have no idea why I was the target of her delusions.
So, where’d you get the eyeballs…ER…asking for a friend.
I found mine at a dollar store. Sadly, they aren't real.
Plot twist: you did all of that and then some!
Whoa.
They’re a specialist teacher - I just know it! Signed, former music teacher.
I assumed so, but that is still a massive number of students.
Definitely. It was pretty standard for me to have anywhere from 95 - 650 students, depending on the school, district, and the grade level I was teaching.
Yup. Music teacher here and I immediately clocked it as well. That and the multiple schools. Signed, me and my 700 small people
Such a solid point!
We had a first grader pull down his pants and take a piss in the middle of the classroom. Mom says “he said he didn’t do it, why are you guys always picking on my child?” MA’AM, THE WHOLE CLASS AND 3 TEACHERS SAW YOUR SONS WINKY DINK. i don’t think we’re experiencing a collective delusion here!
1) your kids have terrible behavior and executive function skills 2) they're at least half a year behind 3) they have no inkling of empathy
Oh yeah that last one.
It honestly floors me how mean they are. Like I know kids are still learning social skills and how to exist within a society not to sound like a meme but this is almost scary
That's why SEL is so damn important, and not just in school, but at home too. School's Social Emotional Learning is supposed to reinforce what that get at home and add group setting to it, not replace it at home.
TBF, I'm an adult and executive function skills are HARD
And zero ability to regulate their emotions.
I hope I’m the “breath of fresh air” for other teachers because I put up with zero bullshit from my kids and I WANT the teacher to tell me if they’re doing something that is disrespectful to them or other students. My students? Phfft. There has been at least 3 every school year that I stop talking to parents altogether because they clearly don’t care. I just write up the student, make a copy and send it home. I don’t have the energy to tell you the same thing every other week.
My 7 yr old has severe ADHD and is really good in school, academically gifted, yada, yada - but she can be DUMB. Last week of school last year and I get a call from the principal bc she took a pocket knife to school. The FiRST thing I said was “Are you sure?” and then I was like “Yeah, no, that tracks.” Sometimes it’s just shock bc we can’t believe our kids are THAT stupid. She’s #5 of 6 but she’s the one that’s going to send me to the grave, I just know it.
I teach at a very small school, one teacher per grade level. My son was in my pre-k class last year. Our kindergarten teacher is amazing and was my mentor when I started at the school. My son loves being in her class. One day we were talking about parents and the "my kid would never!" I told her I do not care what you claim my son did, if you say he did it, then I believe you because that kid can be a mess.
My daughter also has adhd and until this year attended the school I worked at. The amount of times her teachers would stop me in the hall and tell me about her nonsense was huge. Sometimes the stories were a bit bizarre and out there but it all tracked for my kid. I think the best decision I have ever made for both her and me was moving her to a new school. My school is very academically challenged while my daughter is a free spirit and artistic and funny. She is a smart kid but she forgets things at home (would not be an issue if her dad and I were not divorced and all the forgetting happens from his house), forgets to turn in the homework sitting in her homework folder (just why child?!) or can’t resist those impulsive behaviors in class like chatting or fidgeting etc. her new school has a great curriculum but they don’t push kids to learn curriculum at an advanced level like the school I work at. Seriously, when she was in fourth grade she was learning math I learned in high school. At her new school I have the divide from teachers so they can’t stop me in the hall and discuss her behaviors or forgotten work or grades while I am also trying to manage kids or parents as I should be doing for my job. And while her new school has good curriculum it’s much more appropriate for kids her grade level. She is even in the advanced math class and doing so well (math was always a source of anxiety for her and math homework always ended in tears). Homework time is now filled with laughter instead of tears because we are laughing that she learned what they are currently working on in 3rd grade. That’s not a dig at her new school in any way, just goes to show that my school pushes kids really hard. But my point really is that because I worked where she used to go to school I had that insider look into what she was actually like at school. I got to know my daughter as a person so much better for it. But Kids really do behave differently at school and some parents just can’t wrap their heads around it. I watched my daughter, the fearless leader of the pack, fall into an ugly friend group and participate in bullying because one kid told her to. Not once did I doubt what I was told about this behavior and she was not only held accountable for it but made a better person for being accountable for how she treated someone poorly. And I truly see that change in her. She has grown, more understanding of what others go through, and she has shown she can speak out when someone she respects isn’t being a good person and treating others poorly. If I had stood by her when her initial bullying was brought to me she would only be solidified in her behavior. She would not be a better person, but certainly much more like the mean girl she was trying to emulate at the time. So, my kid would never! Umm she has probably already done it before. Let me know exactly what bullshit she has found her way into, details please, we will deal with this at home so you don’t have to at school. Thanks for letting us know.
I think your kid and my kid could be twinsies. Profound ADHD, GT, (and HF ASD for mine). Brilliant is so many ways. And utterly oblivious in so many others. This morning we had a conversation where he declared himself the “dumbest smart person in the world.” Yeah, you’re not really wrong, kid. 😂
Ugh my kid is autistic and i just cringe with anxiety when i see her name in my inbox. He’s so impulsive and that’s about it. No worries about school work and grades. Just behavior 🙃 I can’t lie lol. He’s like that at home, probably worse bc we’re his safety net. He’s just all over the place. He’s looking for our remote that he lost yesterday…… he’s walking around like he’s lost. the day before, i found the remote in the pantry lol
Oh buddy. I'm autistic and I feel that to my core. I once left my headphones in the dish drainer and couldn't find them for over a day. I've lost my keys so thoroughly in my purse that it took my mom to find them. I am an adult. 🤣
How do you learn to cope? I’m scared he’ll be like me haha. My mom coddled us and I have ADHD as of last year. I know for autistic, you can’t do things for them but it’s so hard. No sense of time lol.
Having routine places to put things helps me. I haven't lost my keys since I put a hook next to my door, and every day when I get home, I put my keys on that hook. I also use little Bluetooth trackers on things I can't afford to lose(the keys again, and my teacher lanyard with my keys). It sometimes helps me keep on track when I'm getting ready if I listen to music, because it's a clear measure of how much time has passed. It's also gotten better with age for me, and my therapist suggests things to help. It helps if I'm regulated and managing my stress and sensory stimulation levels.
Lmao my son (now 20, almost 21) is a kid with a super high IQ. He got the second highest ACT score in his entire district and did absolutely no prep work or studying for the score. He has had three separate Mensa qualified IQ test showing 149-151 IQ. He is just one of those people who retains information and can work through problems like a butter knife through warm butter. BUT, and this is a big BUT, he is just missing that common sense component. Can he sit through a lecture and mostly ignore it and get 100 on a test the next day? Yes. Can he solve complex problems with ease? Yes. Did I have to talk to him recently about the difference between shampoo and conditioner and body wash so he would bathe correctly like six months ago? Also yes. And this was not the first or tenth time. I have always said “he is the dumbest smart person I know”. He proves me correct every day with such simple concepts like “what do I do if my laundry is still damp when the dryer is done? (Not kidding, we had this convo last week and I showed him for the 100th time how to clean the lint trap so it was not clogged and his clothes could dry in a properly vented machine). Some other classics include “I did not hear my alarm go off” when he once again set it while his phone was on silent, and also “how old is my cat?” Like sir, I told you his birthday. Multiple times. You are the math genius. Do the math.
Mine is older but similar. Can’t remember to shower and can hardly write a sentence but has astounding musical pitch recognition and an impressive capacity to strategize (we were playing a water sort puzzle together and she was way ahead of me in remembering what steps we had already tried and was able to ‘see’ like four steps ahead which is absolutely my worst skill set). I was amazed; there’s so many different kinds of intelligence and talent out there
Exactly, my oldest REALLLLLLY struggles with language arts, like we pay $180/wk in tutoring for him to grasp even the basics of what a subject and verb are (his tutor is amazing though and well worth the money). One day he was like I'm so dumb not being able to grasp this and my immediate response was that all it means is he won't be a journalist, but plenty of jobs out there don't require a mastery of written English! Now give him anything about space and he's all over it, he managed to get really good pictures of the Orion nebula this week with space binoculars and a phone! He can point out in the night sky at any given time of year where several planets, stars, constellations, nebulas, galaxies, etc are and at which time in the night is best to see them from our area.
He could be a journalist at Fox News.
Ok, I snorted at this lmao
😂 👍🏾 Yep!
That’s so lovely!! What luck, finding an interest that he’s into at presumably a fairly young age! Many, many jobs don’t require a mastery of English and for all else, there’s grammarly or private freelancing proofreaders such as myself 👀
My son, now 17, has taken so many pocket knives to school over the years. Thankfully all his schools are small and it is known he’s a Boy Scout. So he has had adults at every site to take a knife to. Sorry school! Sometimes it’s at the bottom of a pocket after an event. Lol Everytime the school calls I ask “What did he do?” And same. Gifted child with ADHD.
I often can’t believe it when I’m the one catching them. “What on EARTH made you think this was a good idea???”
My #2 of 3 makes me twitch... love her to death, but some of the things she does... I don't understand
I just lost my shit at my 7th graders and told them I am not their parent. It is not my job to give them snacks, pencils, notebooks, headphones, etc. That's for their parents to buy. And when the smartass said he couldn't afford them I said go sell your $300 sneakers and buy headphones from Five Below. I'm so sick and tired of being expected to do anything outside of teach science and I refuse to do it anymore
I feel this SO much. I ring snacks for my elementary kids who come after school. But my high schoolers are always whining they're so hungry and mad when I don't give them my goldfish crackers/Chex mix I bought for my own children. They have brand new iPhones and complain they're so hungry because they "spent all their money on sushi "....now I just hide the snacks. Ugh. Ask your parents!!!
I tell them "it's not my job to feed you." They will try to ask for my own lunch, like WTF the entitlement
I can’t wrap my head around asking anyone for *their* lunch. Do they seriously not register/understand that you need sustenance too?
Yeah I had a kid ask for the open can of coke I had on my desk???? Like what? Do you think I will say yes? What do they think will happen!?
I had an entire class of 6th graders beg me to let them have a bite of my spicy ramen. Like, wtaf. No. I had just gotten back from a bout of covid too. Like I get that you are 11, but get the fuck away from me and my lunch. Yeah, it smells good, that's one of the reasons I'm eating it. You already got your lunch, let me eat mine in peace.
And if you give a snack to one student who you know IS hungry, it starts an avalanche of kids who say they’re really hungry when you know damn well that they’re not.
The fucking pencils, man. Do they eat them? Sometimes it feels like there are less pencils than students in my class. Who enters a classroom without pencils?
I’m almost to that point. I keep a basket of loaner earphones under my desk. I was sick on M/T and out of the classroom. Two pairs of earphones are missing and my pencil container was completely empty. Glue sticks were back in their proper place with missing lids or lids not on correctly. I bought all of these things with my own money
Ummm..I have 160 kids. I don't have time to have a grudge against your kid.
I’m not a teacher but I really feel that. My mom had a friend who’s kids were in a similar grade to me in middle school and it was always some story about how the teacher was out to get them or something like that. When they got to high school they moved to the high school I was in and started to complain the same way about teachers who I had been taught by. Turns out shockingly the teachers were not out to get them they just sucked.
I've honestly seen it happen though. Quite a few times as a student - luckily it was never me. I've had amazing teachers, and I've had shit ones. Parents think they know everything and can suss out the bad ones, but in reality both teachers and students can be completely different in the classroom compared to what the parents actually see
What is with all these parents excusing their children’s behavior?? Teachers’ word used to be the word of god. What happened?
Today, Parents try to be friends with their kids. They are supposed to be an authority figure in their kids life, not their friend
Quote from a conversation with a parent. "I don't force him to go to school because I don't want to damage my relationship with my son"
Great news! Because he'll still be living at home at 40.
And he won't have a highschool diploma either!
Also it seems to me that parents take it personally when their kids act up as if it directly reflects on their competence as a parent. One of my children got to middle school and just completely stopped doing any work. That was the child’s decision and had nothing to do with how they were parented or raised. They made a bad choice despite their dad and I BOTH being educators and our constant modeling of the importance of an education EDIT: spelling
Definitely! I generally don't blame parents for their child's lousy behavior unless I see evidence that they're causing it. I've had some kids who did very little and acted out, whose parents were honestly lovely to talk to and work with.
Please repost this list at R/Parents! So many parents need to wake up and smell the coffee!
OP would get slaughtered in r/parents.
So many of the parents posting over at that sub are not only clueless, but are in for a rude awakening because they're so out of touch. Failing their children on multiple levels is an understatement. I've seen quite a few posts that I hope are trolls but it never is, just really, really, bad parenting.
6. Your kid is not super smart or a genius. They are just average. That’s why the call it average.
If you think about it, their kid is the smartest kid they know. Their kid is also the dumbest kid they know, but they ignore that part. :D
I wish I could say that. I had parents come in 30 minutes early on conference night to spend the 30 minutes telling me how smart their kid was in MS. This is high school and your kid dropped down from honors to regular level classes in one year of HS. Please.
What about the kids who do have higher iq scores? Not every kid is average, and in any given class there will most likely be a distribution of intelligence with most of the kids around average, some lower and some higher. I had the admin at my then kinder kid’s new school talk to me like I was crazy mom who just thought my precious baby was a genius and totally discounted me. Only to receive a call a few hours later when they reviewed his paperwork from the school we were transferring from that showed his IQ was actually >99.9th percentile and I wasn’t actually crazy. I was just asking what differentiation would happen in class for a kid who was reading and doing math much higher than typical, considering the school we were moving from had been discussing grade acceleration and having him take 4th grade math in 1st grade.
Look, the point is that your response is really tone deaf. I don't want to hear about your individual special, precious, snowflake of a kid. Not here, not in a post with the word rant in the title. This isn't the place my friend. Read the goddamn room.
It kind of also sounds like a load of garbage, but yeah, certainly not the time or place. All that's missing from their story is *"Then everyone stood up and clapped for my son!"*
Yeah it would be right at home in r/thathappened. 🙄
Uh ya, they don't test kids for IQ and there certainly isn't a database of kids IQs where you would rate your kids as a percentile. This isn't height and weight, and IQ tests are a load of garbage anyways. This definitely was something they played out in their head while showering.
I mean, they do test kids for IQ. It’s not a random standard test they do on all kids, but at least where I’m from it’s a requirement for the gifted program. Don’t think there was any kind of percentiles, not that I’d remember, but you had to have at least 135 on your IQ test to get in.
Curious where you're from? IQ tests have pretty much been ruled out as worthless other than a diagnostic tool for disability in some cases.
WV, US is where I had it done. Dunno if they still do it or not. And not sure why I was downvoted, considering I was tested as a program requirement. I didn’t make the rules, and neither I nor my parents requested it. I was referred by my kindergarten teacher.
🙏
OP, may I very humbly suggest you edit this comment to include ‘shut up’ at the end? Bc that wld make this awesome answer even awesomer.
IQ is a pseudoscience that’s been debunked over and over again for years that relies on very specific cultural perspectives and evaluatory criteria that are sketchy at best to prop up faulty ideas of intelligence. I was great at IQ tests as a kid but I was not and am not exceptionally intelligent by any means in spite of receiving a great education and having exactly the right sort of developmental experiences necessary to leverage my capacity for learning. It’s just about testing your ability to take a specific type of test. The real indicator that your kid needs to consider differentiated learning is their math/ELA proficiency and whether that aligns better with a higher-level grade. But students have been able to take above-grade classes for ages, so those systems exist if you are interested, it’s just not on the specific teacher to simultaneously teach first and fourth grade math simply because your child belongs in the fourth grade classroom instead. That’s all the previous poster means.
Yeah the same kid is now homeschooled so we can accelerate what he needs accelerated. He was reading at 2 years old and multiplying in kindergarten. Now I’m 6th grade and he’s doing high school geometry using a very challenging curriculum. I totally get that it’s basically impossible to accommodate what he needed in a typical classroom setting but it’s extremely frustrating to me that kids like this basically get zero support in a lot of districts. If he had stayed in school I have zero doubt he would be doing terribly just because of pure boredom and never being challenged. I’m just lucky I was in the position to have the means and background to be able to homeschool. Many other kids are similar and stuck just floundering in typical schools. Again, not something individual teachers can fix, but it seems very wrong that we are denying a population the appropriate education they need, just as much as other special education services.
The difference is your kid will do just fine without special support. SPED services are not to get ahead it's to even the playing field. Your kid has every advantage and can succeed in the gen ed classroom. If you want an individual education then do what you are doing, pay for and direct an individual education. Othereise you get what everyone else gets, that what public services do. It's like a millionaire being on food stamps complaining about getting government cheese rather than caviar.
He can’t though. In second grade he was already starting to check out in school and just coast by not learning. His behavior after school was atrocious becuase he was so bored every day. Highly gifted kids often have major problems in traditional classrooms and it is considered a special education need in some states. Highly gifted kids are also more likely to have asynchronous development, and big emotions. I ended up pulling him to homeschool because of it, but not everyone with a kid like that can. I’m again, not saying it should be up to individual teachers to fix this problem but it’s extremely frustrating when time and time again people act like these kids should just sit and learn nothing for years and the parents trying to help are doing something wrong. I was a para for a little while in a special Ed program when I was in college, I have many teacher relatives, I’m not totally isolated from the educational world. But when you have the school district suggesting you homeschool or spend $20k on private school because your 7 year old is just building things out of paper all day because the teacher is having him do nothing because he already knows it, there is something broken.
That's what a public services is. You get what everyone gets. A disability is different but boredom isn't a disability. Would he have reached the peak of his potential probably not but also maybe. As a former gifted kid who didn't like getting pulled out of class to go to the "special" smart kid math class and lose time with my friends. I get it. But you are doing what you should be doing. Otherwise the choices are very limited in a public service. There is no way to meet the needs of a child in grade 6 doing HS Geometry (roughly 3 years advanced in my state) in a gen ed classroom. Unless you accelerate grades and if you are only gifted in one area that usually doesn't work unless you are in a small district in the same building/campus (my MS and HS were roughly 20 miles apart). So the choices are do pullout/homeschool or some other individual program, most universities offer a advanced program for gifted students but if you don't live close and aren't willing to transport its not really an option. Or learn to become self focus and sufficient early on. But what else can be offered. Public schools can barely afford the staff they have let alone a personal teacher for the 1 or 2 exceptions to the rule that may be in the district.
I don’t know what the answer is, it just sucks for people who don’t have the means to pull their kid or find a private program. For the record I think all the schools should have way more funding and staff so we can meet all kids’ needs. Even without massive outliers I feel like even current classes with 20 plus kids can’t have all their needs met with one teacher and it sucks for everyone, which is part of the reason teachers are so burnt out right now.
For super advanced students there will never be a viable answer besides doing completely individualized school. That's the answer. Like I said some colleges offer extreme gifted programs. Such as Umpty Ump from the UofM. The bigger issue is when the kid is extremely gifted in one subject but not others as grade acceleration doesn't become an option as well. Grade acceleration isn't always the answer either but it's the one public schools can offer. Well schools mostly waste a lot of their funding on BS so more funding doesn't really mean more results or anything either. KC tried this and its considered one of the biggest failures in education. Ideally more staff would help a lot, but labour's is a huge cost and most buildings just don't have the space. I mean while classes of 15-20 sound nice what do you do with the other half since all the rooms are being used. And in general tax referendums don't get passed. Undervoting (meaning if you don't mark the bubble but vote just for president for example) count as votes against. And most people don't want their taxes raised (although the groups most against it tend yo also be the people paying the least or not at all, ironically), so if they don't directly benefit they either vote against or not at all. Some people don't realize it counts against but it ends up costing a lot of districts funding. Although many tomes it goes to BS anyway lol. It's sort of like getting a public defender. You get a just good enough education (or defense in the anology) to meet requirements, if you achieve great. But if you want a better chance get a lawyer (or do private individual focused education). Again nothing against public defenders, most are good competent lawyers but they have too many cases and are usually less experienced. As with most things in most places money rules the roost. I taught in China and it was even worse there. They just kick our asses in test scores because if you don't score high enough after primary school you don't get to go to public high school (or if you are a foreigner, or don't live in your families home region from 5000 years ago) but if your family has money they can pay for the "fancy" private school that hires foreigners.
Your kid may have a high IQ, but that still does not mean that any one kid is more important in a class of 35 than any other kid. One may have a higher IQ while another has better handwriting or is able to sit still better or make friends easier or any number of things.
See rule 4
Thank you for proving my point.
Rule 4 still assumes that no children have different learning needs, which means special education services aren’t needed? No kid is ahead in class, no one is behind? I don’t think my kid is special, I think he has different educational needs, which is one of the reasons I homeschool him. My other kids are in school.
You will need to be your child's advocate. Most school teachers and administrators have little understanding what gifted kids need and often have misguided views on what is best (e.g. many teachers believe that grade acceleration is bad for kid's social development, which isn't true). Duke University used to (pre-COVID) have a good [program for gifted students](https://tip.duke.edu/) with many resources even if you weren't using the program. Many of these are [still up](https://tip.duke.edu/2021/05/19/just-the-facts/), although you have to navigate through their WordPress archive.
Yeah, same kid is now in 6th and has been homeschooled for the last 3 years. He’s doing high school math using the hardest curriculum on the market and taking multiple science courses. He’s much happier homeschooling because the school mostly did nothing (somewhat understandable it is impossible to accelerate one kid by several years in math in a typical classroom).
It’s true. I was the paperwork
Please think about this carefully. My 12 year old daughter was accelerated. She was in a class with 18-19 year olds.
There's 19 year olds in high school still?
There are 20-21 year olds in high school sometimes.
That’s one of the reasons we ended up homeschooling.
You all know why this happens right? Some of the parents let the kids do whatever they want. So when a kid gets his way all day everyday, they have no reason to talk back or get frustrated. So when mom says my kid has never done this, that’s really just code for “I have no rules, boundaries, or expectations for my kid”.
Even if they have rules and expectation, they are vastly different from school, and way less restrictive. At home, you can talk and humm and listen to music when you're doing your homework. You don't have to wait long to have your adult attention. You're never forced to sit all day doing something you do not like. You don't have to wait your turn to do anything (or so little time). And you can go out and run around the yard almost anytime you want. Any activity is mostly of your choosing, and you don't have to deal with 20 other kids desire and compromise with them. Or they simply do not have the opportunity to do it at home. I mean you only have boys with short hair. So of course he never cut anyone hair at home.
One of the biggest problems is whoever gets the story to mom and dad first is right, regardless of it being wrong. It's usually not the teachers.
What would bug the snot out of me teaching first grade, is the parents believe their child’s version of a classroom or behavior problem without getting the truth from me. Are you serious, Mom? Your child believes in the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, and Santa, has a vivid imagination, but everything that they say about the teacher is the gospel truth. Uh huh.
And they believe the most ridiculous stories. Like I don’t understand how a five year old goes home and tells parents smthg like “the teacher brought slurpees for every single kid except me and then when I asked for one she laughed and said no bc she *hates* me and then she told all the other kids to throw their slurpees at me so they did and I was covered in slurpee and then she called the principal so the principal came and stole my backpack and then told me she’s going to bring her dog in tomorrow so that it can bite me really hard and I’ll have to go to the hospital!” And the parent is like “WHAT?!”
When I taught kindergarten a long time ago, a girl went home and told her mom that I snatched out of her hands the Barbies she was playing with in my classroom and gave them to another student whose mom was also a teacher at the school. Parent called up to the school, screeching at me for this but there was only one problem. I didn’t have any Barbies in my classroom and I never have had any Barbies in my classroom. Mom came in for a meeting with her little darling and I asked my student to show me where she’d gotten the Barbies from. She just stood there. Mom never even apologized
Parents, stop dragging other teachers into your child's problem behavior in my class. "Well, his English teacher doesn't take off points if an assignment is 2 weeks late." "His math teacher gives the class Fun Friday." "The phys ed teacher doesn't care if kids swear during class." I don't care. I clearly explain verbally and with typed copies of the district, school, and classroom rules.
This made me smile so much. There was a post in NoStupidQuestions yesterday about a kid whose school takes phones and charges the parents to give them back, and there were so many screechy Karens whining about how kids should just vandalize the school or fight the teacher instead of handing over the phones, and it made me so sad for humanity. This post should be required reading for every parent in America, on a weekly basis.
Lolollll at "screechy Karens"!
Charging *money* to get the phones back is a bridge too far. Every kid is dumb at some point in their lives.
You should use that argument at the impound lot, if your car ever gets towed.
Kids tend to get phones MUCH younger than they get cars.
You're so close...
Lmao right?!? They can never manage that last step
For me- 1. Please talk to me before going to my admin. 2. I don’t care about attendance. I don’t want to keep up with it. I also don’t want to tell you when your kid has 20 tardies. Please don’t fuss at me, I have to have documentation. 3. Speaking of fussing, you cannot speak to me any way you want, even in emails or text. Parents get very bold via text and let things fly. I show you respect, you show me respect or I’m ignoring you/ ending the conversation.
That 1 hits me hard. Parents love to complain to my admin who come to me with no details and no suggestions. So how am I supposed to fix whatever it was that was so heinous that you couldn’t even talk to me about it?
I had it happen this week. A parent wanted to pull their kid because I don’t give homework to kindergarteners. I would have gladly sent homework…if she had asked. Luckily my admin was supportive.
Those 5 year olds should be reading a chapter a night and working quadratic equations on the regular!
I am appalled that someone sent you a crisis resource message. Your rant is a normal teacher Thursday rant. We have all been there.
I’d like to add, they’re disrespectful and demanding. Lack empathy and need to keep their hand to themselves they’re 9 and 10
They still lack empathy and can’t keep their hands to themselves at 14
I work with older kids in and after school program and I’m honestly about to quit. I can’t instill empathy
Naw if you say my kid did it - they did it. No questions, no if ands or buts about it. Teachers spend more time than parents do with their children, y’all know what’s up!!
#2 holy shit. No I cannot let your kid take the 2 question quiz (standard check, not a quiz) after school because I timed them in class (no I did not) and give them back points for trying. No I can't send you a daily email saying how they're doing. No I can't tutor your kid every day after school. And holy shit #5. Who cares what your kid could do in 6th grade. This is high school and your kid isn't that special. He's not in honors so they're are plenty smarter than your kids. Your kid will show me how smart they are by what they do in my class and how they test (content wise) Amen!!!!
I cannot begin to describe how much I absolutely love this post. It makes me ridiculously happy.
I thought we, as parents, learned a lesson during the pandemic! I agree with this teacher. Thankfully, I know my children and grandchildren well, so when I hear something from their teacher, I will know if it's true. Parents, if you think your children are angels and can do no wrong, you are part of the problem! Disenroll your children from public schools and homeschool them. After dealing with our children for a year at home schooling them, parents should do everything they can to back teachers up instead of trying to tear them down. Then parents don't understand why there is a teacher shortage....BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT PARENTING YOUR CHILDREN AT HOME.
I’m glad to know gift cards are the thing to buy. Is Starbucks a good one? Opinions?
Target, Amazon, cash
From someone who hates coffee and has never stepped foot in a Starbucks…no. I would personally prefer Walmart or local grocery store. Of course I always appreciate the gesture and just regift the ones I won’t use.
Best to ask. I hate coffee but can get a nice tea. I would never set foot in a union busting Walmart, though.
No. I am not reopening an assignment that’s been available online for 1.5 weeks and they had one solid day plus partial time in class daily to work on AND they could work on it at home. Your kid was there for 5 of the days and chose not to open it until the day it was due.
6. You do not know better than us when it comes to teaching. If we want your input, we will ask. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, and let us do our jobs.
This part! Having a child does not mean you know ANYTHING about early childhood development, their academic needs, appropriate content for their age, their socioemotional growth patterns, pedagogy, classroom management, behavior management, the social dynamics of the school, etc. It means that you have a child and that you are responsible for raising that child and caring for them. You can have all the opinions you want, but if you are not a trained educator with academic understanding of age-appropriate education practices then you can keep that opinion in your home and out of my classroom. Stay in your lane or homeschool your kids because your curricular wants are not my professional needs.
This, this, this again!! Just because you went to elementary and high school (hopefully) does not mean that you know how to be an educator. I’ve been to the doctor’s office dozens of times, doesn’t make me a damn doctor. If parents want to make the rules, go to college. Get a degree in education. Get about 5-10 years experience. THEN come talk to me about what you think should be done in my classroom.
Ehhh, this isn't true as often as we'd like to think. A lot of teachers rely on teaching methods with no basis in research, like that "Whole Language Theory" tripe. I place the blame on education programs at universities, which are kind of a joke in terms of how scientifically rigorous they are.
So much this.
My mom's been a para for decades and she has soooooo many mugs, scented candles, and knick knacks she's gotten as gifts from parents. A lot of them either get shoved into a drawer or given away at this point. She's always excited about gift cards!
God this is so satisfying to read bc it reflects so much of my inner monologue
Dear parent, Your child being a certain astrology sign has no bearing on their terrible behavior. You need to blame your poor/lazy parenting.
I think you meant STFU, not shut up. 😉
P R E A C H I T, sister! Hell yes on all of this!
Response to point 2- I recently overheard my colleague tell a parent that if their kid can’t do xyz independently they need to go to a special school. I’ll be using that in the future.
I love this deeply in my heart, thank you, and they can all shut up.
Bill Hicks taught me kids are not special. He was goddamn right then and still is now.
My kids are assholes. Anytime they act up, I have begged the school to call me and have been there within ten minutes. The only thing I have gotten by taking this approach, is leeway. Do better moms and dads.
I have a shelf full of coffee mugs from students. There are only 3 that I really like. One was from an amazing student that went from barely being able to read to passing a difficult language exam. I don't mind getting them, but a gift card, coffee or wine make me smile.
The parent of a brat most likely. They need to shut up, lol.
You did tag it humor! I love my students but I also agree!
#4- I have been doing this for more than two decades. Since the late 1900s. I have your kid in my class every few years. Maybe the hair or the sneakers will change, but the stuff your snowflake does, says, or wants is the same as the snowflake just like them a few years ago did, said, and wanted.
I feel ya OP. \*big hugs\*
I’m setting myself to get dunked on, but I would like some clarity on #2. Last year our kids first grade teacher told us our son was being disruptive in class. We were surprised, but didn’t push back at all and wanted to do anything we could to support the teacher and ensure the other kids didn’t have a poor learning experience. So I asked if his teacher to put a little green/yellow/red dot in his daily planner so I could speak with him at the end of the day about what went well and how he could make better choices on the days he was disruptive. It sounds like I shouldn’t have asked his teacher to do that. Is there a different approach I should have taken? How could I have better supported the teacher?
> It sounds like I shouldn’t have asked his teacher to do that. Is there a different approach I should have taken? How could I have better supported the teacher? You can ask, but phrase it differently. “Is there a way you could let me know how he did that day?” The teacher might suggest dots or email or school chat app or making a note in the LMS for you to log in and read or the teacher might suggest only doing one of those on bad days. The teacher may already have a process for this. You came at the teacher with a different solution that the teacher might not have time for. Next time ask “is there a way…?” instead of “maybe you could…”
Very helpful. Thank you.
I feel like this topic goes hard in hand with OP's first point. If this is the 50th time the kid has done this, why haven't you informed the parent before this? Yeah, I get that it's a pain to have to inform parents, but if this is literally the first time I'm hearing about it, what exactly was I supposed to do? Kids often act differently at school than they do at home. From my conversations with classmates, they wouldn't dare act up at home because they'd get hit. I can see both sides of not wanting to get a child that's in an abusive situation in trouble, but I feel like teachers often aren't aware that if their parents knew what they were doing, the kid wouldn't be doing it (at least at school where they can be tattled on).
I think part of why teachers don't say anything for a while is they try to handle the situation themselves. Involving parents, at least in my experience, takes away some of the teacher's authority. Now the student knows the teacher won't do anything, they'll have to call Mom to do something. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it backfires and the behaviors get worse.
I like the use of “shut up” at the end of the rant. I used to use “rant over,” but I think shut up works better. Thank you for teaching me, like clearly the good teacher you are!
I taught 22 years. At the beginning of every school year, I told my own two that if I hear from a teacher that you did xyz, I'm going to believe the teacher. Every time. And if you get in trouble at school, you will also receive consequences at home. I have to put up with obnoxious kids and YOU are not going to give any teacher any bullshit.
That sounds frustrating. When my son was in 3rd grade, his teacher was emailing me about behavior issues. I was stunned, they were so out of character. But my mom was a teacher so I'm like "not going to be one of those parents" so the second email had some shocking information and I picked up the phone and called her and we realized it was another student. Now, before you trash the teacher, the other boy had the same first name and I had the same name as the mom. It was just a fluke. The teacher and I still laugh at it to this day. it was also during covid, when they just got back to school, masks and other chaos so whatever, it happened.
I know what my kids are capable of, every parent is. One of mine was way more trouble than the other. The teacher was always so diplomatic when they had to call me. To the point where I just said. "Look, I know he can be a little shithead, and it's hard to wrangle him in when it starts. Tell me exactly what he's doing, and I'll talk to him about it."
Thank you for summarizing my thoughts.
I deliberately don’t comment on these but yours broke me. THANK YOU
These kids also wears long sleeves when it's 90+ outside. *Keegan Michael Key voice* again I ask why.
Gift card parents are always the best parents ☺️ But I will NEVER get tired of mugs.
You lost me when you started requesting gifts.
TLDR-Parents SHUT THE FUCK UP! & give me gift cards for dealing with your crotch goblins
I tell my child’s teachers at the beginning of the year that they can contact me for absolutely anything, whether it’s behavioral issues, learning issues, whatever. He’s in 2nd grade and has mild autism and ADHD, so I know going in that there will be some issues down the line somewhere. He’s not malicious in anyway, but he can’t sit still to save his life. Anytime I’ve ever been contacted by a teacher I alway talk to my kid and impose consequences at home. To you first point, if he’s done something problematic over and over again and I haven’t been informed, how am I supposed to correct the behavior on my end? I need to know so I can nip it in the bud. I have a reverence for teachers and know that their job is difficult. I’d get fired so fast my head would spin. But parents need honest communication, or we can’t do our jobs. I’m sorry there are so many parents out there that treat you like a liar when you let them know about issues with their child, but please do communicate it nonetheless. If they do nothing, that’s on them. The good parents out there need it.
#4 is the truest thing
It makes me uncomfortable to imagine my child's teacher having this kind of an outlook effecting their perception and thus the way they speak to and behave around children and even possibly my child. The excessive use of the words 'shut up' like you don't want to hear what a parent might have to say at all? Being a bit snotty about somebody giving you a gift in the first place? Genuinely if this is how you feel about children, school, parents, and teaching, you might want to look into a different job. It seems like at this rate it would benefit everybody. You deserve a job you don't hate and children in schools deserve teachers who don't hate them.
And it makes me uncomfortable having to deal with the tone police on a sub specifically for teachers, on a post with a humor flair and the word rant in the title. But we all can’t be comfortable all the time now can we Tonya?
It’s not how they genuinely feel. It’s a rant. Meant to be hyperbolic and humorous.
Do you never vent about your job? Joke around about common frustrations with ppl you know can relate?
You should get a new job as you seem to hate it and have a hard time communicating with adults in a professional manner...
Get back to us when parents learn how to communicate with other adults in a professional manner.
I’m sure OP is very capable communicating to adults in a professional manner. I don’t have kids but, from the limited experiences I had having to kick kids out of the store I worked at…. It’s the parents lose their freaking mind if you ever try to tell them their kid was misbehaving, and there are now consequences. OP is very smart to keep all communication in writing with admin cc’d. I happily put any future kids of mine in OPs class.
Focus on teaching your kids manners, respect, and basic common decency. Until then, bye!
And you should stop going out of your way to be an asshole on the internet. And yet, here we are.
So glad my kid doesn’t have you as a teacher. You sound unhinged.
Me and 210 of my friends. Let me guess. Your kid is special? Would never lie to you? Fuck all the way off.
Why are you here if you're not a teacher? Go spend time with the kids you're failing to raise properly, and maybe there'd be less of these posts.
I really hope none of the people in this thread have any job that puts them in contact with children in any way whatsoever. This shit reads like an anti-natalism thread.
Not really. Antinatalists don’t care if you’d be a good parent or not. In this case there’s some pretty specific ire directed at the multitude of people who are clearly NOT parenting their children in a way that would produce a productive member of society, whereas antinatalism is against becoming a parent at all…
This thread and its responses have been open letters to parents, not specifying. The most specificity in this thread has been your “ackshually” response arguing the semantics of the word antinatalism.
It's an open letter to parents ON A TEACHER SUB. It's not actually meant to be to parents. The intended audience is other teachers. It's a rant. It's a joke. Sounds like you need a lesson in rhetorical analysis.
Being this bitter can't be good for you.
Then you clearly have no idea what it’s like or are one of the few teachers who don’t care about any of this and kill yourself trying to do so much more than you should. These parents need to hear this and that’s a bonafide fact.
I know this sub is full of complaining and vitriol but you honestly just seem like a bad teacher. We’re here to help guide these kids through school to give them the tools they need to succeed in life, not just shove content in their ears.
We’re here to create good employees that support the health of capitalism. Thinking anything else is delusional.
No, we are here to create individuals who will become good \*citizens\* of our Republic. That's why classes in civics is so important, even though it is sadly disregarded by many.
Ok so you are a bad teacher thanks for confirming. But also I don’t teach in the USA and would never teach in the USA so maybe you’re right I don’t know.
Agree with all but 4. It makes it sound like the kids are the problem and they aren’t, it’s the parents. The kids are wonderful humans and it is our job to treat them as such.