My Son's History Teacher

[jamiemars]

To make a very long story short, my son is failing history for the 1/2 year, despite a 73 average, because his teacher thinks he has not mastered some "competencies". Needless to say, this will not look good on my son's transcript, as he has applied to a few colleges and must send end of year transcripts. I believe this teacher has had it out for my son since day 1. This is an advanced placement class, and the teacher just doesn't think my son is smart enough for an AP class. (The teacher said as much to me on the phone months ago.) My son is very upset, and it has been making me upset. Now I have to talk to this teacher, the guidance counselor, and the principal tomorrow and argue on my son's behalf. On top of all the other stresses in my life, I have to deal with this. I have argued with these people before (and have won). It is a public school system, and not a very good one. The personnel is not extremely sophisticated.
I have a burning hatred in the pit of my stomach for this teacher. I can't seem to get rid of it. I simply hate him. I don't know how to get past this. I hope he suffers a terrible fate for being such a horrible, rotten, and evil teacher. I am a teacher myself (college), and would never treat my students the way he has treated my son. School is a place to learn and grow, not a torture chamber.
How do I deal with this? Especially if I am unsuccessful in salvaging my son's grade?
Thanks.

So is your son a hard-working delight when he's not in college? Contributes to the home, does chores? Has a part time job?
Or is he part of the reason why the school isn't such a good one; motivationless, slack about assignments and indifferent in class?
What do his other teachers think of him, and what subject does he intend to major in at college?

How did you not know he hadn't bothered with his last 5 assignments?

The teacher told me about the five missing assignments. I guess there is nothing more I can do. I am irate att son of course but also continually disappointed in the school system. Seems teachers just don't give a crap anymore. They don't bother to coach or mentor students. They take their aggressions out on students and take delight in punishing them. Thr particular teacher I am seeing with is no communicative and not helpful and shirks responsibility. I am so frustrated talking him that my head explodes.

Some pupils do not have the potential to reach what they want to reach in a particular subject. Some pupils don't have the self discipline to keep up with the work. A teacher saying so is probably just a teacher saying so. Teachers don't say it to pupils they "have it in for". Teachers don't "have it in for" pupils. Why would they? Where would they find the time or the energy? what do you mean by "reach out to" your son - he taught him, didn't he?That is his job! I think your reaction to the teacher is out of proportion and irrational. You don't have to like him; he isn't there to be liked! You do have to interact with him in a constructive and adult way! From your account, the person at fault would appear to be your son, and that is from YOUR account. He is possibly a lot more at fault than you are describing, based on your grudging admission of his failings, your extreme hatred of the teacher, and your expectation that he change his professional judgements on your demand, and your odd expectation that he is required to "reach out" to your son.

Thanks for understanding and sympathy. It's hard to properly explain the situation. Bottomline is the teacher has treated my son and me poorly for specific reasons I am list, and my son did not take full ownership of his work. Sucks all around. Guess this is a lesson learned. Not everyone in life is helpful, fair, kind, intelligent, or hard working. Not even teachers. Students have to work with what they've got and take full responsibility for their work.

You haven't responded to my questions about how the other teachers he has see him as a student, or what he intends to study at college. What made him choose history if you and he both hate and despise the tutor?
Or is the system different in the USA, don't you select subjects?

Hi skating, he gets good grades in all his other subjects. His grades aren't superb, but they are above average. In our grading system he gets mostly B grades and a few A's and C's. He has never failed a class except for this one. He wants to be a pa, physicians assistant. It is like a doctor, but With less insurance burden. He took this ap class thinking it would look good on his transcript. collers would be impressed. Well not so much anymore. Oh well. One grade is not goig to ruin his entire life but it may prevent him from getting into the school he wants. Thanks for being interested and helping me with this.

Hard to type on this phone!! I meant colleges, not collers!

Big glass of , JamieMars.

You talk about the teacher torturing your DS and doing things which lead you to hate him.

But you haven't said what - apart from chasing him for missing homework and suggesting he isn't up to coping in an AP class.

If the teacher has behaved unprofessionally, then do complain about him to the head of department. But if he just isn't very interested in spoonfeeding your DS, then I think you are going to have to find a way to get over it all whatever it is.

JMars: hopefully this painful experience will ultimately be good. A kick in the ass to make him realise that he's got to grit his teeth. I know I only became a high achiever because I almost failed English.

Check the Gen-Ed requirements at the colleges he's applying to;Will he have to do loads of classes he's not into or is the Gen-Ed list pretty short? Maybe should be a factor in his choice of college.

Thanks ll, a glass of wine would be a good remedy in this instance!!

Mrs Cakes, The teacher has reason to be vengeful. Last fall I disagreed with some of his teaching practices (that my son told me about), so I complained to the principal and the superintendent of schools. The teacher and I had some heated words between the two of us. So the teacher does have reason to dislike me. I am assuming he is trying to get back at me through my son. That is my hunch.

Lljkk, I think ultimately it is a good experience, as you said. I can't change it, so might as well just forget about it. My son needs to learn there are all different types of people in the world, and learning how to deal with them is part of growing up. This teacher may be a bad teacher, but ultimately it was my son's responsibility to either do a stellar job with his class work or get out of the class in the first two weeks of fall and take a different subject.

Thanks for responding.

Hmm more of a back story then.

Sounds like you and your son have riled this teacher. He hasn't been doing the work required and now you are blaming the teacher for his failure.

Why did you complain straight to the principal and superintendent of schools before taking to the teacher direct?

Sounds like your son is hood winking you and you are falling for it.

Agree with Penelope. Your son is the problem here and your blind belief in him. If the other students are doing fine then the teacher is a good enough teacher.

Your language is totally over the top. "burning hatred" "vengeful" "evil". It sounds unhinged, frankly.

You are over involved in your son's education, he's old enough to take responsibility for himself.

Take a good hard look at your posts and try to see who is the unreasonable one here.

I'm reading this from a teacher's perspective, not as a parent (although I am both)
Teachers deal with over 100 pupils each day. I mean this as kindly as I can-we simply don't have the time or energy to devote to hate campaigns against individual students. Between prep, marking, reports, paperwork, parental meetings, pastoral issues and CPD there isn't time to be bitter. If a pupil hasn't done their homework, I won't chase it up; I'll issue the set punishment (lines/detention) and move on. If it happens repeatedly, then it will be flagged with their head of year. It's then their responsibility. I'm paid to teach, not to police. Obviously, if a pupil comes to me and explains they are having problems/need support, I will give them all the extra help they need but I'm not a mind reader. High school Pupils-however young they may be-need to take responsibility for thee own learning.
In my opinion, you're reading too much into this. Your son hasn't completed the set work. Yes, in an ideal world the teacher would have encouraged him and followed it up but to miss five assignments takes genuine effort. A teacher simply doesn't have the time or resources to devote one to one attention to every pupil, especially ones who seem like they aren't fully committed to the course.

I understand your concerns regarding the history you share with this particular teacher. No-one likes to have their professional judgement called into question, especially when it seems like you've gone in at the highest level without allowing him to give his side of the story. However, this would make any reasonable teacher actually more wary of being too harsh on your son-why would you pick on the kid whose mum will make your professional life difficult? Honestly, if this was me I'd be applying the rules exactly as they are written to avoid future confrontation. It seems this is what the teacher has done.
I'm sorry you've been so upset by this but please look at it from your teacher side. If a college student doesn't hand assignments in what would you do? You'd fail them.

I actually teach college part time online, aside from my day job. I have about 60 students per semester. I follow up with all of them. I act as a mentor, guide, tutor, and teacher to them all. The college, which is a respectable institution, does not have a no tolerance policy for late work. Rather, points are deducted for lateness. I always encourage students to turn in work no matter how late. It is better that they do the work than don't do it, even if they get very little credit or even no credit. I put learning and acquiring knowledge and skills ahead of anything else. Not doing the work because it is late benefits no one.

Do has your son done the assignments and they just haven't been marked? Or did he just not bother to do them at all?

As an American & secondary social studies teacher I have to wonder of all the AP classes to take as a senior (so 17 or 18 years old) why on earth your DS would have selected a class taught by a teacher you've had issues with in the past. Surely he knew who the teacher would be prior to class starting.

I know there's a big push to have more non-traditional AP students take AP classes but perhaps your DS really wasn't up to the challenge. Yes, yes, teachers are supposed to motivate students and make them WANT to do better but at some point it has to come back to the student. If the student isn't willing to do the work, then the student isn't going to do well AP or general ed.

I'm confused as to why he's going to fail if he has a 73. Is there a separate policy on missing x-number of assignments is an automatic failure?

Does he plan on taking the AP exam?

I say this as someone who's had a variety of students in an advanced class - some perfectly capable, some with IEPs who were so interested in the material they were able to overcome some other issues.

Also, as a teacher, my students knew that every day was a new day. Every day was a new opportunity to do well and try their best.

Finally, 60 students is a far cry from 120 - especially when you take into account the different administrative and/or extracurricular activities teachers are responsible for.

I'm taking an online class now and am remarkably unimpressed with the feedback from the professor. I think it would be different in a bricks & mortar uni.

jamiemars I understand where you're coming from, I really do. Of course work - no matter how late - should be submitted, but you seem to have forgotten that these are teenagers we are talking about. If the work hasn't been submitted on time, it is more than likely that you will receive work that has been done quickly and is not representative of the pupil's potential in order for them to avoid further sanctions. Is this meaningful learning? No. I'm not saying this is the attitude your son would have but it does seem like he's just buried his head in the sand and decided not to follow the rules. Missing one assignment? Fair enough. Two? Pushing it a little but there may be extenuating circumstances. Five? Come on.

You also need to consider the fact that 120 students each day (on a particularly busy day it's more like 150) is representative of one term's rotation. In a calendar year, I will have 300 different children walk through my door, many of whom I will teach for just half a school year (which is 15 weeks). How on earth do you get to know each pupil's individual talents and weaknesses when you've got the pressure of getting through a set course, preparing for the exam and all the other stresses not associated with a College environment? How can you devote mentoring time to each and every pupil (because if one gets it, then surely everyone should?).
Seriously, you're equating your teaching experience with this and it's like comparing apples and oranges: they may both be fruit but have completely different tastes and textures.

The person you should be frustrated at is your son, not the teacher. If 29 other people in the class can follow the rules, why can't he?

Jaimie, just because you teach an online college course p/t does not mean your children are automatically going to get ahead at school. In fact just the opposite is true as a (very) general rule and this thread is a great way to see one of the reasons why this can be so.

It is really important as a teacher to guard against interfering with your iwn child's education in this way. If the school he is at has a 'no tolerance for late work' policy then that is the rule he must abide by, no matter what your opinion of it. Sharing that opinion about the policy he must abide by, with your son, does him no favours and you risk him feeling he is off the hook. You are too busy concentrating on the teacher, and interferring in the work relationship your son has a duty to maintain with his History teacher.

You're right, it is done now. Where can your son go with this now? Would it be possible for him to do the History course online and catch up with the subject and get credit that way somehow?
I think you need to back off from this and let your son handle it, apologise for not handing in assignments and ask the teacher what he should/could do.

Hi MythicalKings, My son probably would have done the assignments late if it was allowed. But with the no tolerance for lateness policy, he did not turn them in. I know he was out one day because my other child was sick and I had a meeting at work with out of town guests that I could not miss, so my son missed school to babysit. This was marked an unexcused absence because he did not have a doctor's note. So one of the assignments was missed on that day, and that was my fault.
Hi hopefulpuffin, The issues I had with this teacher were in the first quarter 2014, which spilled into the second quarter of 2014. So there was really no opportunity for my son to drop the course at an appropriate time, unfortunately. It is possible, as you said, that this teacher has little time for giving students individual attention. I estimate he teaches about 100 students (the high school is small). If a teacher has spent decades teaching, he is most likely just burnt out and wants to get through the days and collect his paycheck.
Thank you for your thoughts and feedback on this subject.

You aren't listening, are you?

It's your son's fault.

Apart from the one that was your fault.

Stop looking to place blame elsewhere.

Yeah, it's my son's fault. The teacher still sucks wind and should be fired for being a lazy, rude and condescending ass wipe. Both are at fault.