Wow, that made me chuckle as I shook my head in disbelief.
Help a FReeper out. I have a student who has consistently maintained a very low F in my class and is a consistent behavior problem. So far, this is what I've done to try to 'find out the problem and help the kid resolve it.' I'm actually looking at my contact log now as I type this.
Phone home - 42 times
Letter home - 15 times
Email to both home and work - 72 times
Letter home - 8 times
"Please see me for a conference" checked on the report card and interim - 7 times - along with an F on the report
Last Friday, my principal calls me into the office because the mother is FURIOUS the child failed his reading SOL and demanded that the principal reprimand me, fire me, make me give him free tutoring during the summer. So, I went back to my room, pulled out my contact log and showed the mom and the principal both the notes and the printed out emails and letters.
The answer from the mom? I didn't do enough to let her know there was a problem.
How much would have been enough? I'm not sure, but when you consider there are 180 days in the school year and I've attempted to contact her OVER 140 times, I'm sort of at a loss.
Any advice? I'm open to listening to the wisdom of the collective
I was referring to a child showing her work folder in this story who is eight years old and has a mother who is engaged enough to notice and care about the bullying at school. I think you can work with a normal child at 8 to give them coaching to help them do better. The kid’s work was very neat. Being a teacher, hopefully you don’t look at every child who needs a boost as a waste of time.
There are hopeless cases. Sounds like you have one and that is why I could not stand herd classrooms where you have no power to expel students who don’t want to be there and waste your time. How old is the child you are dealing with?
Any advice? I’m open to listening to the wisdom of the collective
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Professional offices in the private sector ( architects, lawyers, CPA, doctors of all sorts) are completely free to say, “ We are not a good fit. We recommend this firm /office.” Amazingly, in the free market of private professionals there are people who are not only skilled in handling the most difficult problems but these problems are **welcome” and eagerly accepted.
So....When a person **willingly** chooses to work for a socialist-entitlement program that government functionary must accept all the problems associated with socialism. If the government school functionary chooses to continue in this line of work, then he must accept that parents and kids will not be held accountable. They should not whine about how hard their job is. They should have done due diligence before starting down the road in preparing for that socialist-collectivist job.
In the government socialist school collective the parent has the First Amendment Right not to respond to government functionary’s efforts in contacting her. The parent has the First Amendment Right to be angry and demand collectivist worker’s dismissal and since ( by law) the child is under police threat to be in the school, some poor government employee is stuck with the child and his parent without having the means to dish out consequences to either the parent and the child.
I will give two examples:
A general practice physician fired me from his practice because I refused to have a sonogram after a questionable mammogram. I had a good reason for refusal, but he also had every right to fire me.
Please notice the summer camp advertisements in the New York Times Sunday edition. There are camps for **every** child regardless of interest or disability, and there are even camps/schools for children who are defiant. In the private sector workers do not see these children as a burden ( in contrast to workers in our collectivist-socialist K-12 school). They are **welcomed** by staff who are well experienced in handling these challenges.
Solution: Complete separation of school and state.