Posts
Hovering Parents Bully Teachers
Please let me know what you think about this article....
By John-John Williams IV Sun reporter
March 4, 2008
Carroll County school officials told a grandmother to stop coming to her grandchild's class after she spent two weeks studying the teacher. A Baltimore County teacher recalls being threatened physically by a parent who happened to be a boxer.
And in Howard County, overbearing parents are becoming such a concern that more than half the teachers surveyed say they have experienced "harassing behavior."
For the past two years, 60 percent of the teachers responding to a job satisfaction survey conducted by the Howard County Education Association reported that they have been subjected to harassment. Last year's survey specifically identified parents as the offenders in 60 percent of the cases. This year's survey, to be released in the coming weeks, will report similar results, said Ann DeLacy, the HCEA president.
Read more HERE
8 comments:
What a bunch of BS!
How can "hovering parents" be hovering, when they are only allowed to "hover" twice a quarter, with a bully administrator watching this "hovering"?
If the county would do their job, observing teachers and making sure that my money is being spent on competent teaching, and not a bunch of lallygagging, obtaining AP scores between a one and two, and obviously and absolutely NO CORRELATION BETWEEN THESE SCORES AND THE STUDENTS CLASS GRADES?
When this kind of fraud is going on, why wouldn't parents want to "hover"?
And who are the whimps talking about being bullied? Now do we have a bunch of pansies whining to mommy that the "big bad bully taxpayer" is picking on the poor, defenseless incompetent teacher again?
Yes, but now they can hide behind the "highly qualified" qualifications of being touted as being "highly qualified" by the "no child's behind left alone" act.
And what an act that is.
If these people were employed in the public sector and had years in a row of complete failure, who in a private corporation would tolerate that complete incompetence.
But since it's on the taxpayer's watch, they continue to get away with it.
All I can say it's time to start raising hell about these AP scores.
It's a complete scam.
Yes, and quit hiring incompetent teachers.
Quit employing teachers that miss 2/3 of the year, totally incompetent, "fired" from the high school, and then pop up at some other school to teach.
What kind of crap is that?
If they pull this kind of malarkey, why are they being transferred to teach at another school?
Are we that hard up that we are telling parents that a teacher is being released but yet show up at another school in the county?
Please try to convince me, with these type of shenanigans going on, that our administrators actually care about the parent's children and their education.
I actually agree with the article. From my own experience, it seems that the parents who continually harass me are the parents who don't expect their students to take accountibility for their own actions. Luckily, there are not very many of these types of parents.
There are appropriate and respectful ways to communicate concerns to teachers, which all adults ought to model for children and students.
I agree, the bullying parents seem to be in the minority. Most of my friends spend a huge amount of time volunteering at the schools. We are helpful and supportive. We are not bullies. But, if there aren't very many "helicopter" bullies why have the policy that limits "helicopters" to two brief visits a quarter. With these harsh restrictions, one visit wouldn't even get me through ONE of my kid's classes because they do block scheduling at his school. (Another joke. It's just a slick way for teachers to pick up a free second planning period.) How is it that teachers only teach 3/4 of the instructional time any way. They get one of the four blocks off. And I'm being generous here because that assumes they are actually teaching during that time and not just turning on a video or allowing the kids to talk quietly after they complete their HOMEwork.
It's really easy to call this "BS" when you don't leave your name. This is just more of the same behavior that's been identified in this article. If a child is low performing it must be the teacher's fault. If that's the attitude we're going with then pay teachers what they deserve. We're the only country in the world that spits on educators instead of revere them, and we wonder why we test poorly compared to the rest of the world.
Anonymous at 7:06 pm: Let’s start with your premise, but take a different approach: “If a student is low performing, it must be the teacher’s fault. If that’s the attitude we’re going with, then let’s implement a better training and evaluation process, and when groups of students don’t succeed, we should establish accountability by evaluating the instruction and the instructor, as well as the teacher’s and the students’ preparedness for the content. We need to look at whether appropriate materials were used, whether the syllabus was adequate (and followed), whether the students had the baseline skills necessary to succeed. We need to look at the teacher’s classroom management skills, and discipline. We need to ask the teacher what he/she thinks contributed to the lack of success, and we need to ask the students what they think contributed to the lack of success. And then we need to establish specific corrective measures.”
I don’t think we, as a nation, “spit” on educators, but that’s an opinion about which I suspect we will continue to disagree.
Let's start with the premise that "just plain old dumb kids" do not take AP Calculus and AP Physics, shall we?
Now, let's also advance the fact that the teachers do not cover the material in the rigor and extent so the smart students can score well enough on the AP tests in order to receive college credit?
Let's examine the scores that are on the low end of a 1+. These posts are looked at by many educators, administrators, etc. who do not give a crap about the lack of knowledge/ability to teach to enable their students to do well on these tests.
Not all, but are you telling me that "BS" is not an appropriate term to describe what is going on with these charades?
I challenge the administration to allow engineers and scientists within the community to observe these teachers and and see if these teachers actually know the material that they are "teaching" and obviously should also know beyond that level?
These people that bury their heads in the sand are as guilty as the ones that fraudulently lead on students and parents that have no idea that they are being led to believe they are actually taking a college level class.
As long as you have totally incompetent teachers cranking out "1" and "2" AP scores on a yearly basis, parents should storm the administration and demanding these teachers be removed from the classrooms and for God sakes, NOT PROMOTED!
They chose to go into the teaching profession. If they can't teach, don't like kids, etc., they don't deserve to manage at the administrative level.
They should move on to a career that takes them off the public payroll.
***If that’s the attitude we’re going with, then let’s implement a better training and evaluation process, and when groups of students don’t succeed, we should establish accountability by evaluating the instruction and the instructor, as well as the teacher’s and the students’ preparedness for the content.***
I have to disagree. These people have already gone to school to learn the material. Why should the taxpayers waste a nickel on "teaching the teachers?" Start hiring people that are bright in the subjects they teach; hire teachers who inspire students and not belittle them...
I would say that administration that can't recognize that teachers that have twenty and twenty-five years in the system obviously are no longer worth investing anymore time by "teaching the teachers."
Let's admit it. You can't teach someone that has not innate ability in a subject. That is a waste of time, and a death sentence to any student that takes a class "taught" by this re-taught teacher.
Post a Comment