There is a mass Exodus of teachers leaving the classroom. The deficiency of staff members and educators in schools is growing due to the increased pressure teachers get from admin, the corrupt education system, and, unfortunately, inconsiderate parents. We need our teachers to ensure our generation thrives. A generation that doesn’t value education is doomed. To prevent that, I’ve created this list for parents who want to show appreciation to their teachers by not bogging them down with unrealistic expectations. Here are five things you shouldn’t expect teachers to do.
Email you weekly
There is a 90% chance your child’s classroom is at or has exceeded capacity. That means there are probably too many kids in their class. It is not the teacher’s job to update you weekly about how your child is doing. It is the responsibility of the parent to check their grades or the folder or work that comes home every day.
If you have older kids, don’t ask them about how they are doing. Check for yourself because a child will tell you “fine” to avoid accountability. If you want to stay current, familiarize yourself with the tools the school puts in place to keep families updated. Ensure you have a login and are set at the beginning of the year to alleviate any confusion.
Whether it’s a reminder app, Parent Square, or Class Dojo (the list goes on), make sure you’re on it. A teacher’s day starts at 60 miles per hour and speeds up as the day progresses. Most teachers barely have time for bathroom breaks, so they aren’t checking their emails.
If you see an issue, your best bet is to contact the school coordinator, parent coordinator, or dean to request a meeting so you can meet with all your child’s teachers at once to get a more holistic view of how your child is doing academically in all subjects.
Respond to your calls or texts after hours
Teachers are organized individuals who create a daily schedule of what they plan to accomplish with each portion of their day. Once the bell rings, they are either on dismissal duty, circling back with a student regarding their behavior, grading papers, attending an afterschool meeting, or on their way to do everyday things other humans do.
Build a rapport with your teacher before you start contacting them directly, and only contact them for urgent matters. If you always contact them about what your child did, your calls will get ignored, or you won’t get an accurate response because now you’re on the “annoying parent” list.
A parent called me around 5 pm (school gets out at 3) to ask me about bringing cupcakes to her daughter’s school. Not only did she want to notify me about it, she wanted me to coordinate it. Not the type of call I wanted to be dealing with after five. The best way to communicate with your child’s teacher is to respect their boundaries, build a relationship before you start reaching out unannounced, and do it sparingly.
Give extra credit
This is one of the most frustrating and disrespectful things a parent can request a teacher to do. If your child cannot complete the regular work, why should the teacher go out of their way to create more work for them? That also means the expectation is the teacher has to grade the extra work, thus creating extra work for the teacher. Extra credit opportunities are offered on a whole class level. Not a student-by-student. Usually, it is announced in class to ensure all students have the chance to improve their grades.
If your child is failing, then extra credit is most likely not the solution. To get to the root of the problem, have a reality check with the child, then meet with the entire team of teachers to see other areas they may be struggling with and build an action plan. Failure usually points to a different issue; an extra ten points is not the solution.
Prioritize the needs of one child over the needs of the entire classroom
This is a polite way of me saying teachers don’t have the time to discipline your child outside of the school policies. Schools are a practice of how humans are to exist in a world with structure. Most rules and consequences are the same for everyone in our society. Schools are the same way. Teachers don’t have time to stop everything they manage in the classroom to provide one-on-one interventions to a misbehaving child. Maybe the dean of discipline does, but not the teacher.
Your child needs to understand there are rules in the classroom and consequences when those rules are broken. If a teacher bends the rules or consequences for one student, they jeopardize the entire class. This shows the other students that rules can be broken and consequences only apply to some.
And if you make excuses for your child’s behaviors, be prepared to continue to make excuses for them for the rest of their adult life. You are telling your child they are not accountable for their actions and will raise a grown man-child or a grown woman-child instead of an adult. Action leads to consequences. Period.
Dehumanize Themselves
This is the most important one. Teachers are humans. We have families and children of our own. Many teachers work another job because the pay is so low. Many teachers have health issues due to stress and unrealistic expectations. We want to work out, we want to eat good food, we want to sleep at night, and manage the romantic relationships in our lives.
We aren’t robots, so please be nice to us. Do not curse at us or take your anger toward your child’s grade out on us. Also, if you are disrespectful, prepare for some professional (or unprofessional) clapback.
Teachers earn numerous degrees and certifications to educate. Not babysit. We are either literature lovers; math whizzes, science geeks; gym junkies; art lovers; music enthusiasts; or history buffs, so much so that we want to spread that excitement to other tiny humans too.
Please respect us and our craft.
Sincerely,
A former teacher.
Listen to the Podcast
The Unfiltered Truth about Athletic Scholarships and how to secure one for your child – Raising Readers
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- How to raise readers while making time for yourself
- Diverse Books: Which books actually help?
