Sorry, but

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2004 : October : 13

Sorry, but
By Dawn

I am not the one who posted about the parent rumor mill, but I'm sticking up for the poster. Sorry, but her post is true. I am a parent as well as a teacher. I log untold hours during the summer at the pool and the baseball
fields. All around me are parents talking in loud voices, saying teachers' names and singing their praises or trashing their methods and personalities. These parents do not know that I am a teacher, and they don't seem to care who hears them loudly discussing the teachers by name. I have heard dozens, if not hundreds, of comments about teachers, many of whom I know, and some of whom

I work with. I have to say that the parents' points of view that I hear at these events has almost never lined up with what I know about the teacher as a professional. Sometimes they border on slander. I always feel for the teacher being discussed--thank goodness they cannot hear what is being said! So the parent rumor mill is alive and well, at least in my district! And sadly, at least in my experience, it is usually busily grinding out information that is inaccurate (to put it as kindly as I can).