survey - What was the most impractical...

[Carolyn]

thing a parent has ever said to you? I once had a parent come up to me two days before Christmas break (near the end of the marking period) and ask if I could have her son make up all of his missed work from the nine-week marking period, and could I please give it to her so he could complete it over Christmas break and hand it in to me when we returned in January? (Note: report cards were due in the office a few days after our return.)

 

[musicbug]

parents.....

One of the parents when after her child didn't do both major projects of the marking period, got upset that a progress notice went home. She wrote over one, this won't change any time soon. He doesn't like reading. (second prize)
First place.... Parent says let the child fail the project to teach him a lesson( different kid than above)....e-mails me the next day asking how he can pass for the quarter with a 50% average, because she really doesn't want him to fail for the quarter. Go figure.

 

[Mindfull]

Makes you wonder

A parent just last week came into my classroom while I was teaching and wanted to know where all of his child's make up work was? This child had not been in school more than 20 days since August. This was January. (The child was turned in for truancy) I told him that there wasn't much to make up as most of our work had been group projects or experiments. She had been given most of the worksheets but she didn't have a clue of how to do them because she had not been in school. I teach a 1st/2nd split. This child is in 2nd and does not recognize 50% of her alphabet or their sounds.
How do these people survive? this child does have sever asthma but since the family was contacted about truancy the child has been in class every day and health wise was just fine. Strange that the child's sib also was missing school when her sister was sick.

 

[Barbryan]

Kind of crazy...

One crazy, impractical thing a parent wanted to do was to have her 4th grade daughter take a photo each day (digital) of the assignment board so that she would not need to fill out the mandatory assignment notebook. This was before our homework went online on our website. I still cringe when I think of it!

 

[Belle]

What planet do some parents come from???

...I confronted a parent in Oct. about how her child was constantly late to class by 15-20 minutes and in doing so, missed the whole beginning of our Phonics/morning circle time (and her child was already way behind when he started K with no basic skills at all)..I told her that class started promptly at 8:50. Her reply about made me fall over...she looked at me so earnestly and said "We walk to school and I just don't know how we are late every day since we leave the house at 8:50". I thought she was joking but when I saw she absolutely had no clue, I had to explain to her that in order to be to school on time at 8:50 she would need to leave her house BEFORE 8:50 in order to get to class on time. GEEESHHHH!

 

[wig]

My favorite are the parents that not only insist on extra credit to make up for poorly done assignments/tests or work not completed but ask for it two days before the end of the marking period.

 

[gabanndor]

Not impractical, but....

I used to work at a private school. I had a student whose parent hated the jr. high staff. At conference time, the parent sat across from me, looking at her daughter's failing grades and stated that she wouldn't have sent her daughter to that school had she know that we focused so much on acadmics. Um, Hello? we are a school!?!?!

 

[Jalon]

parent in classroom

OK, I have to ask...how did this parent get to your classroom and enter it during class time? Was she not to check in at the office? Did she come in a back door or something? This one blows me away, probably because of how our policy really limits parents access to the school during school hours (except for emergency, pick up for Dr. appt., etc.), but even then they just don't come to a classroom unannounced.

Some of these make me chuckle in amazement. Since I'm a new teacher (just started in January!), I have no stories like these..yet. But I'm sure they'll be coming! :-)

 

[teach4fun]

birthday snack

A parent of one of my 28 first graders, asked about our birthday policy. I told her she could send something in for the kids to eat and her child could dress down. ( private school, uniforms) . She said she had a better idea, we could go to the cafeteria and she would let the kids make their own brownies and cook them in the oven in the caf... oh yes,, definitely we have plenty of time to do that in our day much less learn how to read,, hehehehhehe I just told her we would not be able to do that but the children would love to have brownies that were already made.

 

[javamomma]

parents

The one that still gets me is
from when I taught 1st grade. Students pulled cards for misbehavior, and this child was an excellent student. However, getting caught up in the freenzy at Christmas got in trouble at PE and had to pull a card.
The mom calls me then all hot and bothered, tells me that she had promised her son $100 if he did not pull a card all semester and could I "put it back".
I told her that I was sorry that was between her and the PE teacher

 

[MichelleK]

Parent Requests

I just had to share this one. I was working at a private school setting up and running a program for students with LD and ADD/ADHD. This particular parent was a board member and father of a particularly active 7th grader with ADHD. They lived two houses down from the school. The student was on my most restrictive step and was required to report to my office with his assignment notebook, his binder, and all of his books to be checked prior to leaving campus each day. The father calls the school and demands that I find someone at school to state late each day and watch his son do his homework b/c the young man was not bringing his books home. I explained that we would not be taking over parental responsibilities and that I already made sure the student left campus with his materials every day. (We actually watched out of the window to be sure he left campus with them!) The rest of the conversation:

Father: "Well then, I just don't know what's going on. He drives his mother crazy so I take him to my office with me every night while I work and he just sits there with his booksack and does nothing."

Me: "Well maybe you could make him open the booksack, take out whatever is in it and work on it. Look at his assignment notebook and you'll be able to see what he is supposed to do. Remember that the last assignment every night is to put all homework assignments in the front of his binder ready to be turned in."

Father: "Hey! That might work. I never thought to LOOK in his booksack. I'll try it tonight."

Homework was consistently turned in after that! The apple didn't fall far from the tree that time, did it?

 

[Debbie Z]

Parent

I work with low readers. Last year I was sure to be blunt with parents. I had one mother on the phone all the time. I sent home progress reports weekly, plus I sent home reading levels EVERY quarter with the explaination that any kid below level would be up for retention at the end of 3rd quarter. (Yes and even wrote with their level if they were below and what would be passing.) I meet with this parent every 6 weeks since October for an AIP. We referred her for testing. Rentention time came and mom tried to tell the principal I NEVER said anything about her child being retained. Luckily, I had all her signed quarter level reports that mentioned retaintion. It was also on her interims and report cards since the end of 2nd quarter. I had those too.

 

[bamateach]

parents

I had a student one year who would do nothing all day! He would sit there for an hour and be lucky to have his name on his paper. I tried everything. 1st grade VERY immature. When I had him do his work at freeplay he would say no i'll just sit out at the fence I don't want to work. I don;t think so! When I met with his mom she said that I was demanding too much out of him. Yes writing 3 sentences in the moring is way too much for children to handle. ARGH! She also let me know that she didn;t know what the problem was with me he can sit for hours and play his play station without losing his attention. Gosh sorry I am not that animated. She went on to say that she was gonna muv hem to a difrent scool cuz she ain't nevr had no truble lernin frum that othr scool. Thay ain't nevr tot as much as i teech. I still have the letter. It is good for a laugh.

 

[Tounces]

good policy

Our parents can drop in any time. They are clueless. Sometimes they come right up to me when I'm teaching a lesson and ask me dumb things such as: did my child get the pictures from last week, he didn't have any yet? This is usually with one or two little brothers and sisters crying etc. The office tells them to go on down! I talked to them about not sending them. The secretary tells them not to interrupt but they can come to the room. You're lucky!!!

 

[trailpaint]

Falling Asleep In Class

During my student teaching, one of my first grade students who was way below grade level and never once turned in any homework, kept falling asleep in class--to the point she would snore and even fall out of her chair. When I wrote to the parent about my concerns for her not being able to pay attention in class due to her frequent naps, the parent responded in a note, "Well of course she's tired! She's up all night long watching T.V.!"

 

[me]

dress code violation

I teach 1st. Our school is a uniform school. There was a child in my grade level who had gone to this school since pre K and was well aware it was a uniform school. The parents dressed her like brittney spears. She was sent to the clothes closet and given clothes to put on. The parents had signed an agreement that changing her into something more appropriate was ok. This happened almost everyday. Halfway into the year the parents decide to withdraw her and homeschool her, because "we didn't like what she wore". That lasted a month and she was put back into school, but she had missed so much.

 

[RST]

Late conference

Last week I had a parent/teacher conference with a divorced dad. He told me that I needed to call his ex-wife, in another state, and have a phone conference with her. I said fine, then he told me that I needed to call her between 8:30 and 9:00 at night because she's at her AA meetings until then. Call long distance, from my home, at 9:00 at night??? He then told me to put aside a good bit of time because she rambles on. I don't think so!

 

[Jess]

My best

My best:

This was at a parent/teacher conference initiated by the me and the principal because the child is a behavior problem. He is rude and disrespectful and talks back consistently. He does whatever he wants to do and tells me to wait when he wants to finish something. Talks out consistently. Tells me that he should be another grade and he is too smart for this grade. First mom always had an excuse when I showed her third grade work that was not done correctly but still insisted he should be in fourth grade and he is gifted. I guess he tested at a year above his age on IQ tests when he was six. So it would mean he tested at seven but she insists he is gifted.

During this meeting as we were addressing his disrepect. She stated: "He is very challenging and I know he is disrespectful. However if you would research history you will find that most Presidents were also disrespectful!"

So I guess if you want your child to be President some day you should make sure you raise them to be disrespectful!

 

[Quatro]

my funny

During my second year of teaching I had a parent from the previous year show up at my door at conference night. She thought her daughter's conference was with me. I told her no your daughter is in X grade. She just looked confused and I said I have to go. I don't know how long she stood there.

 

[Mrs. M]

parents

Last year (I teach first) I had a child who did NOTHING. Nothing. The mother told me after many conferences and notes, etc...."I think you just remind him of a babysitter because you look like her, so he doesn't take you seriously."

Same parents: Conference about his academics, his inability to complete work, his disrespect, etc. Parent reply: Well it's not like he's pulling fire alarms or throwing chairs out of the window".

 

[Laura]

Parents

To put a good spin on things.... I love when you have a family who askes for their child to be in your class because they vlaue what you do over other teachers. I get some great letters for Christmas as well as end of the year.
It frustrates me when parents do not heed you when you say their child is in need. Or ignore your request for a conference but call to chew you out for taking a necklace their child was swinging around. I will have this parent for at least one more year.

 

[IL teacher]

This one left me speechless!

I had a mom call a few years ago and ask if I could talk to her son. It seems as if "Johnny" wouldn't listen to mom at home. Mom asked me to sit down with their family and tell "Johnny that he needs to listen to his mom and do what she asks." I was speechless! Uh, hello, how about I say, "Johnny, your parents are goofs." When did it become my responsibility to control what the kid does at home, too? I did manage to ask if she ever disciplined him at home or took away privileges. Get this -- she said, "Well, it just makes him upset so I don't like to do that." Hmmm.

 

[Marie]

My Story

A parent informed me that her daughter would be out of class for 2 weeks to go to Hawaii - and asked if she would miss anything important. She said she had checked my class calendar of upcoming events and picked those 2 weeks because it didn't look like we were doing anything... Then she asked if she could have all of the work that would be missed (before they left the next day). I was too speechless to answer!

 

[kt3]

outrageous parents

How about having parents call and demand that the principal come over to their house and put the kid's shoes on because he won't do it himself? Or how about the parents that pulled their kids out of our school and enrolled them in another school district, the kid misses the bus, and the parents called our school and demanded that someone come over with gas money so they could drive their kid to their other school?

 

[SC]

Lol!

I know these stories weren't funny at the time, but they sure are entertaining to read now!

There's a mom at school who always comes to help me in my classroom, which is great. The downside to that is I think she's just nosey and wants to know exactly what her daughter is doing in class and what I'm doing. Every now and then she'll barge into my room as loud as she can be and yell to my class, "Hey, everybody! How are you?" Then she'll turn to me and say, "Y'all aren't in the middle of anything, are you?" No...we just sit here all day. I wish the office would be more careful of who they let into the building.