Parent Hate

So I find myself in a tight situation. As I teacher, I find myself feeling the need to defend the teaching profession. Teachers work hard with kids they only have a few hours a day. By the time you take out passing periods, meals, and transitional times in the classroom, kids probably spend less than half the school day fully engaged in learning activities. Our students come to us unfed, unclothed, from homes where parents are gone all hours partying or gone all hours working multiple jobs. Kids come to school after being told that they will be 18 next week and they need to move out. Kids come from homes in which they get a new step parent and step siblings every couple of years. And teachers are expected to not only keep order in a room of 25 or more of these kids, they are expected to take these kids from broken homes where cable TV is the only technology available, in a town with two large employers, both of whom are factories manufacturing widgets in sweltering, deafening conditions for barely more than minimum wage, and we are expected to render these kids ready for 21 century jobs. For a global economy.

And then as a parent I find myself listening to teachers bash parents that don't "Have enough discipline at home" as though all hours should be strictly regemented and managed. These teachers blame their lack of ability to control a classroom on chaotic homelives. They point to silly commercials featuring out of control, chaotic or loud families or TV shows like Family Guy as examples of how the American Home Life has decayed.

And I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. A decent teacher can keep order in a classroom. It doesn't require removing a sense of fun, nor does it require yelling at or belittling children. It certainly doesn't require cherry picking children from the "best" families.

It takes setting clear examples. It takes picking rules that are easy to enforce and cover all basis. It takes being willing to stop everything and reinforce the expectations before trying to move on