Parent Teacher Conference Week
Is there anything more of a tightrope walk than the traditional parent-teacher conference week? For the uninitiated, it is an attempt to distill a student's academic standing in the span of 15 minutes or less while trying simultaneously to gauge the parent's reaction to what is, in effect, your judgment of their child's performance AND, ipso facto in their eyes, a judgment upon them and their parenting skills. Thus, tact and diplomacy are the watchwords, i.e., in some cases "I'm not going to tell you what I really think how you are really fucking your kid up, because if it were legally probable, I'd call Social Services on your ass for educational neglect." (Sorry, a little vent there)
As usual, this year's conferences was your typical mixed bag of parental responses. Clueless parents. Nodding parents.The "yeah, we'll work on that" parents. The occasional grateful parents. And the parents who huff and retort in your general direction, either cutting down their own kid or you or both at the same time. This is the part of the job that they don't pay you enough.
But if 15 years' of teaching has taught me anything, it's to be very philosophical and zen about this week. There will be positive comments, just as there will be snide remarks. There will be support, and there will be outright undermining. There will be blind faith in what you do, and a lot of second guessing. It all evens out.
And so it was this week. 4 more conferences on Monday, but a majority of them are done. I look forward to that Tuesday when I can just go back into my classroom, shut the door, and concentrate on teaching, instead of playing chess in my head with all the parental egos.
As usual, this year's conferences was your typical mixed bag of parental responses. Clueless parents. Nodding parents.The "yeah, we'll work on that" parents. The occasional grateful parents. And the parents who huff and retort in your general direction, either cutting down their own kid or you or both at the same time. This is the part of the job that they don't pay you enough.
But if 15 years' of teaching has taught me anything, it's to be very philosophical and zen about this week. There will be positive comments, just as there will be snide remarks. There will be support, and there will be outright undermining. There will be blind faith in what you do, and a lot of second guessing. It all evens out.
And so it was this week. 4 more conferences on Monday, but a majority of them are done. I look forward to that Tuesday when I can just go back into my classroom, shut the door, and concentrate on teaching, instead of playing chess in my head with all the parental egos.