In my district we send out electronic "interim progress reports". I don't know why we do it, unless the purpose is to ensure that teachers periodically enter grades; parents can check our online grading program whenever they want and see current grades, so unless the purpose of the progress report is as I stated, I cannot see the purpose of having them at all.
California Education Code requires that teachers notify parents at any time they think that a student could conceivably fail the course; accordingly, I sent emails to the parents of those students that currently have a D or F in any of my classes. It was a generic email, a "form letter" if you will, encouraging parents to check their child's grade online as well as informing them of the myriad opportunities our students have for additional instruction/tutoring.
Of the two replies I received, one really ticked me off. It started with "with all due respect"--you know where that's going to go--and then the parent launched right into what a poor teacher I am because that parent's child had never earned less than a B in math class and so the problem must be with me. Except for the "with all due respect", there was not so much as an attempt at respect or even civility.
You can imagine the response I wanted to send. Rather, I wrote a reply, deleted it, wrote a gentler one, deleted it, wrote a gentler one, and did this a few times until finally having written one I knew I could send. My finished product read, "That certainly is an interesting, but not very helpful, way to view things. Insulting me is not productive. A productive action would be to ensure your [student] takes advantage of the opportunities I mentioned in my previous email."
What I didn't tell the parent is that the student in question is the only student in the class with a grade of D or F.
That email really ticked me off.
5 comments:
I laughed when you wrote about writing and deleting before the one you sent. Been there many tines! I had one mother who tried to pull the same bs you got. She got so abusive that I had my principal read my responses before I sent them. The principal was a good guy and ended up telling her that the only communication that she would have with me would be with her, him, her child, and me and that I would no longer respond to her emails. The kid was a super liar who had his momma fooled, but every missing work and failed test was the evidence. Retirement is so nice.
From the parents of AP Physics students, I've gotten the, "She always gets A's in science." I usually ask if she's ever taken a college level physics class.
In regular physics, I get, "I'm not happy that my child has a 'D'. All of your students say the class is too hard."
I usually ask what the parent thinks the class average should be. They know it's a trap, but say something like a 75%. I tell them that in her class, it's currently 79%. Every parent wants the class average to be 60%, but with their kid having a 93%. Sorry, your kid doesn't have the horsepower.
Some parents go to Admin first with these complaints. I'm proud of my asst. principal for coming up with a clever response. He says, "You know how when somebody is talking about something not too difficult or complicated, they say, 'It's not rocket science.' Well, sometimes it is."
This is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading your blog since I've been retired - it brings back memories (good and bad). It's much more important for students to learn the material than receive "easy" grades. Keep up the good work, Darren.
Eff Em!!! Flunk them all!!!
Sorry Darren, I just didn't feel like rewriting my feelings three times :)
I had one of those encounters where the parent immediately "went to 11" and demanded a meeting with me, him, the student, and the principal. It turns out, after his rant, that she got a zero because she didn't put her name on her work. Some teachers would just toss it, but I always had a "Nameless" box for assignments without a clearly marked name. Her work was in the box. She never bothered to look.
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