To feel like parents aren't allowed to criticise teachers anymore?

[velaryon]

I have the utmost respect for the teaching profession, especially the hard work and dedication of many teachers despite a pandemic and nationwide lockdown.
But at the same time, I've seen a lot of parents genuinely concerned about the teaching & communication at their DC's school who were immediately accused of 'teacher bashing' and being too lazy to teach their own children.
AIBU to think this is absolutely ridiculous?
I don't see anything wrong with questioning the level of teaching a school is providing, provided it's done in a sensitive and understanding way. IMO it's ridiculous how quickly someone is accused of teacher bashing for asking a legitimate question.

@Spidey66 you're not being disrespected on every other post.

Neither are the vast majority of the key workers, it's just the teachers.

It's ok to raise concerns, ie "I am concerned Fred isn't understanding his work ". It's not ok to attack them personally.

Wot? No MN comment about being kind?

Carrying on attacking teachers is the message.

Sickening lack of support.

I jokingly suggested a thread pointing out the inadequacies of parents.Of course I'm not going to start one because I understand how hard it is for some and how much they are struggling.

A shame some parents on here can't find some humanity.

I think there's a great deal of criticism of teachers atm and much of it is uncalled for

I used to teach and left...partly due to unrealistic expectations put on us. Teachers can no longer teach from textbooks they now have to be " inspirational."
My dd isn't particulary inspired to work during lockdown...am i blaming the teachers? No....i blame the situatio....the teachers are sending out great projects....she does bits here and there.
Part of this experience is encouraging kids to explore and research for themselves which is why im not being a helicopter mum. Lots of home schooling runs on this ethos.
Let the teaching have their full ( meagre) pay.

Situation...

Unless you contact your child’s school through MN forums then no you don’t need to question your school on here. If you have concerns you need to contact the school.

Especially at the moment I feel people have so many questions, that is not intended as teacher bashing BUT the shear quantity of posts at the is daft. When reasons or answers or explanation is given it seems to open up even more questions and opinions. I'm not a teacher but feel sick to death of the post now and wish they would at least be reduced to just as few rather than as load so God knows how teachers must feel.
I do still open them yes, I want to see if there is anything different said but its often very similar to previous ones and also often to politely give my opinion and its a bit more blunt now, just give it a rest its starting to get very annoying. I know it's not meant nasty but Christ change the effing record. Read the existing posts and bump them if need be but stop flooding the place it must be overwhelming for the teachers no wonder they feel like it's teacher bashing. There are just too many posts even I feel they're being bashed now just by the sheer quantity of new posts that keep appearing.

A serious amount of parent bashing from teachers would not come amiss.

However, teachers seem to be the only profession that are being complained about in thread after thread after thread..

Because people don't like hving their children at home all day! What are dentists doing these days?
From what I've seen schools have reacted differently, my grandaughters' High School has kept them supplied with structured work, my grandson's Primary school has done very little. Once this ends, and it will, no doubt they will be expected to plan for the next once-in-a-millennium event.

and it can be incredibely frustrating when the school isn't teaching effectively

And how would you 'teach effectively' in a global pandemic? What training manual would you be using? Might I recommend 'Make It Up As You Go Along 101'? This situation has never, ever been experienced, how simple can that be?

SallyAlly2020

Thank you for being so honest I think some teachers with decent offering think we parents are making schools like yours up

I dont give a shit about most things but I think it's awful that staff won't comfort upset children when they go back due to social distancing.

I dont give a shit about most things but I think it's awful that staff won't comfort upset children when they go back due to social distancing.

I agree. Another reason why it's too soon. The guidelines are clear, no physical contact.

I don't disagree LemonPudding but then what do working parents do? I am seriously struggling and that is with one child (4) and a partner. If this goes on beyond September I will need to quit my job.

It's. Nothing. To. Do. With. Teachers.

I can't type much slower so I hope you grasped that.

I think perhaps some of the problem is that some people have little understanding and/or experience of schools. Which is e tirely understandable - as parents, we don't see the inner operations of a school. I have no idea how the school down the road operates, for example, because it's an academy and run by a company with potentially different values.

Then there's the fact that we all have different beliefs about education. You might strongly believe that schools are for academic purposes and value the basic skills; the next parent believes education is about developing the "whole child" and prioritises wellbeing over attainment. The first parent may want daily zoom lessons while the second might see this as damaging to a child's mental health. In a class of 30, every parent will have a different philosophy. Every child is different too. It might suit one to have a few worksheets and projects, but another needs face to face interaction. In a classroom, you can adapt for this to a certain extent. But right now, it is much harder to teach on zoom whilst simultaneously not being seen to put pressure on others, particularly those with no technology.

The other thing that I feel plays into this is an understanding of what "effective teaching" is. How many parents understand the cognitive science of spaces retrieval, or other current debates? Primary classrooms often have short bursts of input followed by extensive personalised verbal feedback. How can you do that on zoom? How many of the people declaring their teacher is inadequate actually know what good teaching looks like?

At the same time though, I completely understand the frustrations of parents who don't have the knowledge of teaching. Yes, some teachers are less good than others. Yes, some may be lazy. But really I think the issue is communication. Schools should perhaps have set out exactly what they could provide and couldn't in their context. Some schools did and it seems these schools have happier parents at the moment.

I want the best for my child, but I am accepting that's not completely possible right now because what is best for my son is not right for someone else. So all I can do is hope that the school are providing an experience that is the best overall fit for the class. As much as I hate it as a parent, it's all the school can do right now

I have children in primary school and their teachers are great. My youngest son in particular has a wonderful teacher who couldn’t possibly do more for the children.

I can not blame teachers and school staff for being worried, just as my nurse friend is worried, my brother the policeman, husband the commuter and cousin the surgeon are all worried.
Teachers are in it for the children. They are hardly in it for work life balance or salary! Teachers want to be there for the children and they deserve reassurances about safety.
The government has done a good job of convincing people that this virus is deadly to all. The statistics actually show it is deadly to a very small percentage of the population. Im not suggesting that percentage are disposable in any way. It’s tragic. However, I think the government need to do more to publicise how many cases of asymptotic Covid-19 and how many full recoveries there have been. People need to be informed about their personal risk. I think this would reassure most people about the steps to resume ‘normality’.

@understandmenow
Fair enough!
I don’t disrespect teachers at all. I think it’s a difficult job, especially secondary school age. Like I said I don’t have kids, but when I was one my parents while always supportive of me, would always support the teachers eg if I got a detention or whatever. I do think parents should support what schools are doing.

People keep saying "But why shouldn't I be allower to complain about particular teachers who aren't doing their job properly?!" You can. But be specific.

But if you actually look at the (gazillions of) threads, that's not what they are complaining about. They are going on about their school's provision or the government's decisions. And yet the threads all say things like "Why aren't teachers (in general) doing x, y or z".

If someone started a thread saying "My school is providing good distance learning, but my child's geography teacher hasn't posted any work/posts 10 times as much work as the other teachers/sends horrible messages to kids who don't complete work on time etc etc...

Or "My school has set out its distance learning provision, but half of the teachers aren't sticking to it!" .... then obviously it's perfectly reasonable to complain (though better to query it with the school than add to the rants on MN).

But your thread should be "Why aren't the teachers AT MY SCHOOL doing x, y or z, not 'teachers in general'!

Hi all,
Thanks to those who have reported this thread.

Basically, we've no reason to believe the OP isn't genuine or has set out purely to be inflammatory here and barring one or two deletions we think it seems like a reasonable topic for discussion.

While we completely understand that some teachers may be annoyed by some of the threads on the subject of education, we do have to accept that it's a hot topic at the moment and something many parents are struggling with and want to discuss.

We know that Mumsnet is a sounding board for a lot of parents who are currently trying to work out if their children are receiving the same care and attention as others - perhaps they are preparing to contact their children's teachers, perhaps they have already done so.

As long as that debate remains civil and doesn't break talk guidelines, we are fine to host it. Of course, everyone is more than welcome to join in with the debate, indeed some of our MN teachers have already helpfully explained the restrictions they are working under.

We hope that explains things a bit from our point of view. Please do continue to report anything you're unsure about. If posts on these threads amount to personal attacks, break our talk guidelines in other ways or seem to be being posted by 'single-issue' posters who might be here purely to cause trouble, we obviously want to sort that out.

This thread now on Daily Mail:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8338981/At-13-councils-refuse-reopen-schools-June-1.html

Ah yes. That pillar of objectivity The Daily Fail! No agenda there, no siree!