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Home : 2003 : January : 4

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By Carolyn B.

I don't think they should blame you, Teresa. As the others have said, you do your best with the students you have. You don't have a crystal ball that can help you predict the future education of these children.

I am
a fifth grade public school teacher. I get all sorts of students, and our fourth grade teacher says that she has all levels, as well. I get students who struggle and perform poorly, and their parents will tell me that they were always A/B students. It's difficult for me to get these parents to understand that their child is now beginning to hit a stumbling block, and that is having to

be more responsible, now that he/she is older and has a more challenging curriculum.

Getting kids to care or to put forth the maximum effort is another problem. The curriculum becomes increasingly more difficult, and some children I have try to function as if they never left third grade. The kids themselves have to push to move themselves forward, and they aren't always willing to do that. If the kids aren't willing to try to move ahead, they aren't going to be as successful as they could be. This is actually the biggest problem which I face.

In my school, the second biggest problem I face is the child's homelife. You know how successful or what degree of failure the children are going to experience when you ask yourself: What level of involvement do the students receive from their parents? Has their been a death in the family recently? Are the parents divorced and passing the child back and forth? Who is raising the child? To these questions, I can answer "very little" to the first, "yes" to the second, and "yes" to the third. I have a number of children who are being raised by their grandparents. These are significant issues, and they are things which strongly affect the outcome of the child's education.

I think you have probably considered all of these factors already. The next time somebody tells you it's your fault that the students aren't doing well because you promoted them, consider these ideas. There are just too many factors out there to blame a single individual, namely the teacher, for a student's lack of success in school.