parents who want to blame

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2001 : July : 5

parents who want to blame
By Denise

I just finished my first year of teaching fifth grade at a new school. I had previously taught for three years at another school, so I am not a new teacher. However, I certainly was treated as a "newbie," as you put it
when I came to this school. The parents were very strong-voiced in expressing their disapproval of me, even though I had received approval at my previous school and was trying extremely hard to do a good job.
My problem was that I had an extremely difficult class. It was the class that so many others had problems with. However, on my very last day of school, my principal told me quite

frankly that some of the parents didn't approve of me. They didn't want their child in my classroom (at least that's what HIS side of the story was) because of the discipline problems in my room. He indicated that because I was a "new" teacher, the parents felt that I was not as good as the other grade level teachers at my school. That was nonsense, and I told him that. He admitted that my parents this past year were in denial. They never wanted to hear anything negative. Whenever I tried to call them about problems, they would say stuff like, "I don't like this school. I'm going to transfer my child to another school." or "He never had these problems in Mrs. So-and-So's class."