bizarre moments

I am so grateful for my teaching job! I enjoy teaching, and I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my time during the day.

However, sometimes parents are bizarre. I had a parent call and fuss at me because his child had so many check marks on his paper. When I asked him what he meant, he said, "Quit picking on my son! What's with all of that writing? Why do you have to write so much on his papers?"

Wow.

In my world, that's called "grading."

A couple of hours after that phone call, it was time to see his son in class. Unfortunately, he had a book bag, which is against school policy. When I told him to put it away and get a tardy pass back to class, he decided to leave school property and skip my class. When I called home to let Dad know that his son was truant, he said, "Yeah, I know. He's here with me. He's allowed."

Really?

Wow again.

There are certain folks in politics who want to pay me based on the performance of my students. I'd like to see how they'd handle my class load if they were in my shoes. And what would that do to our special education departments? I know a woman who runs a business with her MH kids, and she does a phenomenal job with them. They can't read, but she uses pictures with the words underneath to try and get them familiar with letters anyway. She is amazing! Does she deserve less on her paycheck because her kids won't ever pass a proficiency test?

Sometimes student success is simply their responsibility, and parents should be encouraging them to set high goals for themselves. I'm doing what I can, but I wish folks who make the rules would try a little harder to understand and empathize.