When I was a TA in grad school I had a similar situation. I had a Japanese foreign student who missed about a third of the class and who barely ever studied and so he ended up getting a 'D' which is consider as not passing in terms of the class meeting the pre-req for the major. So anyone he goes to complain to the Professor that since I'm Chinese I'm biased against Japanese. The professor didn't buy it to begin with but what really sunk the guys argument was that there was another Japanese foreign student in my class who got an 'A'.
It's all a bunch of bull****. Kids today (and I can call myself one being part of today's generation) all want instant gratification. I don't know why, but it’s been getting worse lately. I know many people of my generation--that is generation X and Y who act the same way. Is it because of the lack of parental guidance or all of the loose morals and disintegrating values that is the cause? Or is it disappearance of the traditional family unit? Whatever is the reason, it really makes me scared about the future when all of these kids will be in charge...
God, I could never teach. I would be strangling kids like that on my first day at work. Like you said she is already considering it, but after this is done I would definitely be looking to find a job in another school, preferably a higher income area school district with a higher caliber of students. I know you can gain some measure of fullfillment by educating the less privileged, but I think overall she's enjoy her job alot more at a school like Pearland, Humble, Clear Creek, etc than having to deal with BS like this. Unless she feels obligated to teach in a lower class school as some kind of public service or something, which I think is not a very good career choice. Just my two cents.
What do you mean by 'a higher calibur of students'? As a teacher I can tell you that some of the worst students come from higher income area school districts. I work in a school that is 100% title I. Not all the students in my school are the greatest, but it is very rewarding, and I think a lot of the students are as high calibur as they come. It is true that some people prefer other schools, but I wouldn't call students at economically advantaged schools necessarily a higher calibur.
Aceshigh, if you think the 'quality of students' somehow changes the fact that there are really crappy parents in the world, you need a wake up call. OTOH, coming from you, not really surprising. Nothing like 'ghettoizing' them schools, huh?
Of course there are crappy parents of all socio-economic levels, but I think it is you that need the wakeup call. Where do you think the parents are going to be more involved with their children's education, more intelligent, and less likely to pull B.S like this? An inner city school in a poor area where quite alot of the parents are just plain lazy and subsisting on public assistance? Or an upper middle-class school where the parents (on average) have a much higher income level & education level? Be honest.
As teacher of 5 years, I can "be honest" about the answer that question. It's in the higher economic status neighborhoods where you run into this problem more and more, not the lower economic status. That is where you run into the people with a sense of entitlement, and an attitude of, "Yeah, rules are great....for other people. But they simply don't apply to me when it impedes me or my child, fair or not." The higher economic status portion of our student population incorporate the parents who enable their kids, then go over the top and around standard procedure, b****ing and moaning to anyone and everyone BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY to try to get their way. Oh, and they unfairly bad-mouth our school in the process. So, if I get a vote from personal experience and discussion with a wide array of administrators and even superintendents, I'm going to have to say these issues come WAY MORE OFTEN from the higher eco status folk.
junglerules just answered your question. If anything, something like what happened here is far from the problem in the 'lower income' schools. There, you have to worry more about the parents that just don't care, period. I won't tell you to 'be honest', because I honestly just don't think you understand. Your world view, though, definitely needs a wake up call.
Hey Mac, my wife had similar experience as well. She caught a boy in her class (she teaches a class of 4 yr. olds) fondeling another girl. It wasn't some 'curious little kid' touching someone else, she said the boy knew what he was doing. Of course, like your story, he has had a history of bad behavior in the school and stories from other schools he had been in and kicked out of in the past. My wife talks to the boy's mother, who looks a little stunned and said would talk to the boy about it. The next day, his father came to pick the boy up and got right in my wife's face talking about how kids are just curious, the she didn't see the situation correctly, the little girl was lying and that the boy never leaves the bathroom naked after the shower (WTF?). Of course, she tells him that the girl never said anything and that she CAUGHT him with his hand down her pants. A week or so later, she catches him doing it again with the same girl. In doing her job correctly, she goes to the headmaster (boss) and reports the incident, who then proceeds to call the boy's parents and tell them he is kicked out of the school. Now, this is an upscale, private school in First Colony. I mean, the children of Sheryl Swoopes, TMac, Shaq and others go there; so the fee is certainly not cheap. The father, who never showed up at the school (for no parent night, open house, nothing) before the first incident, all of a sudden is involved in his kid's well being. He calls a meeting with his lawyer (um, which my wife said looked like the guy's brother), my wife and my wife's principal and headmaster. He accuses my wife of being racist (the boy is Middle-Eastern). Of course, it was a baseless claim since my wife is white and the little, fondeled girl is Asian. Anyway, he b***es for hours about racism, again how the girl is lying, demanded that my wife be fired, etc. Fortunately, my wife's bossed were behind her 100% and nothing happened to her but they finally gave him a full refund on the school fee (which is non-refundable) to the guy and he went on his way. Some of the stuff she tells me about her parents of her class are just sad. I could never be a teacher cause I would end up strangling the parents for their stupidity. Anyway, good luck with the situation Mac. I hope everything turns out well for your girlfriend.
I'm not a lawyer (yet) but it sounds like this is a slam dunk for the teacher. I would assume that the school has a policy against the students using gang signs and flipping off the teacher. I would also assume that the teachers are required to inform the administration about such behavior using the "write up" method. Lastly, I would think that if she fails to perform this duty then she is in breach of her requirements as proscribed by the school. If all of those were true, then the teacher was performing a ministerial act and not a discretionary one. A ministerial act has been defined as one that a public officer is required to perform upon a given state of facts, in a prescribed manner, in obedience to the mandate of authority, in this case the school administration. The school district compels her to act in a certain manner given a proscribed set of circumstances. She performed her duty as instructed. If the parent disagrees with the policy she can take it up with the school district, but the teacher should be immune from suit if she was following proscribed protocol. Oh, and yes I am in End of Semester Finals Mode...
Junglerules already responded to part of the question, but I can tell you, that I teach in an economically challenged neighborhood and you don't know the first thing about the parents. It is true that most of the parents in the neighborhood have lower education level. That has nothing to do with being lazy. It is also true that many of the parents don't spend enough time working with their children on school work. But most of the time that actually has nothing to do with being lazy as well. What it has to do with are that many of the parents are working 2 and 3 jobs just feed their families and put a roof over their head. They are at work until the wee wee hours of the morning, and aren't there to help the children with school. It is ashamed when parents have to choose between providing food and shelter for their families, or helping them with homework. I can assure it isn't because of laziness. These parents are working hard, at jobs that most of us couldn't handle if it was our only job, let alone one of 2 or more jobs.
You live in a dream world. Do you think I live in a ******* bubble? I've attended both types of schools, I have relatives & associates that have taught at both types of schools and dealt with parents on a regular basis. I have a ****ing idea of what i'm talking about. Quit being an apologist and start being a realist.
I have taught in a Higher Income school in Cy-fair and one that is considered low income. My experience has been the high income students have been more of a problem. Many teachers will tell you this. A lot of the time now a days high income schools students have less respect from being pampered at home. Everyday you see parents coming in to defend their angels when the majority of the time they are in the wrong. From my experience i would rather deal with lower then upper school.
You don't have an idea. I work every day in the real world in a low income school, have worked in non-low income schools, meet with colleagues from all types of schools to work on these issues. The fact that you claim quite a lot of the parents in low income area schools are just lazy, shows that you are not aware of the real world. You can e-mail me, and come to my school any time you would like. I will have you meet the parents of the children at my school, and maybe it would help you to see a lot that you are missing out on. Quite a lot of the parents of these children are working more than one job just to put food on the table. A few of the parents are lazy.
Sounds like the mother can't accept that her child is rotten. How can the Mother know what is going on if she refused to even talk to the teacher? What kink of crap is this? Is she basing her bias on what the little kiddo spews? Tell your girl/teacher to stand up to this nonsense. People don't know a good thing (education, discipline) even if it's handed out to them, courtesy of the tax payer.
