school/teacher bashing

[paris100]

Am I right to be a bit at the number of school/teacher bashing threads popping up?

Ok, I know there are some not so great school/teachers/TAs out there but if you have a concern, surely the best way is to approach the school in a polite manner?

And some children do behave differently in school, compared to at home. And yes, some children do come home with a completely different story of an event that has happened during the day.

So, in the run up to the end of term, how about actually saying thanks to our good teachers out there. Teachers have got a hard enough job as it is!

You'd do better to go on those threads and stand up for the teachers/schools in question but yes, I think MN seems full of women who cannot bear the slightest comment made to their precious child and are ready to grab a pitchfork.

It makes a mockery of teachers and I think it does a disservice to the system, the pupils and the child in question. Sometimes, just sometimes, we need to accept that somebody else has been put in charge of our children and that they are the professionals. We don't have the right - or the expertise - to micro-manage every aspect of everything.

I think there are two types of cricitising posts here:

one is from the kind of parent who goes into overdrive and starts reacting emotionally before they have tried to settle things calmly with the school

the other is from parents who have tried for a long time to approach the school through the legitimate routes and have found them obstructive

a worrying number of the latter category come from the parents of children with SN or medical problems

(a subcategory are those whose concerns are that there is no legitimate route for polite people to address the problem of a teacher who is quite simply incompetent and has an insufficient grasp of his/her subject- they often let off steam here because they are basically too decent to go into the school and say to the HT "have you ever heard the German teacher's accent")

If you know that you are a competent teacher with a strong grasp of your subject and an awareness of how complaints should be addressed (including such matters as the Disability Discrimination Act), then you will only ever suffer from the former kind of parent- and you have my complete sympathy. It is not your fault that some parents are over-sensitive and there is no doubt that there are parents out there who would try the patience of a saint.

For the record, every teacher who has done a good job for my dcs has been thanked at one time or another. (I've thanked some of the less helpful ones too, because it seems to be expected of you at parents' evening.)

btw we seem to be having a let's-stop-teacher-bashing thread a day atm. But I've never seen a let's-stop-bashing-doctors thread, despite lots of threads complaining about incompetent and unhelpful doctors. Are doctors less sensitive?

Just out of curiousity, do you think it applies in the reverse? i.e schools and teachers having the right to comment on and micro manage what happens at home? (not actually referring to my own thread here but in general as we have had guidance on bedtimes, food, how much to give children for gifts, how often they should go to mass, what they should wear...quite a considerable number of things)

I imagine the problem with most is that there is such a lot of crossover. As teachers, there is a duty of care (yes I am aware of this as a trained teacher as well) and as parents, we are also expected to and should be involved in the education part too . I would never in a million years leave the teaching 100% to the school and there is an expectation to co-teach whether it be reading, homework or suchlike.

We have a significant communication with our school. I think the problems in general are usually down to crossover roles and expectations and well as poor communication.

Perhaps people are sick of having to complain to the school and need to vent here? Some people's kids are in crap schools, my ds was and then we moved and haven't had to complain once, before I worried every day and the teachers were shocking. Some teachers are great , some are dire - same in any job really.

My own tendency (I hope ) is to stand up for individual teachers on the pitchfork threads, but to refuse to accept the idea that no teacher is beyond criticism.

This is no doubt partly due to having been brought up by teachers who thought everybody should be judged on their merits not on the good work done by the profession as a whole. And partly from having had some really unfortunate experiences.

But then again, this awareness that some teachers are frankly crap makes me even more appreciative of the ones that aren't, so it has its benefits.

I've said it before: if I do a bad job I don't want to be excused by the good work done by my colleagues. If I do a good job, I want to be credited with that regardless of any bad job done by any colleague. The teachers I have known have felt the same.

cory... but there is only ever one side of the story presented here. And a 'story' is sometimes exactly what it is.

Teachers are certainly more accountable than parents...

I do know that, lyingwitch, but sometimes you can hear perfectly well even on a forum that a parent is being precious and over-sensitive. Of course a forum is a place where everybody presents their version, but that is the same when teachers talk about pupils or parents talk about their children and spouses of their unhelpful husbands, is it not?

Of course teachers are more accountable than parents. Doctors are more accountable than patients. Policemen are more accountable than the general public. Social workers are more accountable than the parents they investigate. Anyone is more accountable in their professional role. You still have to judge them as individuals.