The Rewards and Frustrations of Education

[Lord Ash]

Okay, gotta start by saying that most parents are great. I have had the great pleasure of having some fantastic parents in the past, who appreciate the education their kids get, who frequently thank me for being their kids' teacher even years and years later, and who talk about how much their kid loves having me as a teacher and how much (and in how many ways) I influenced their lives and had a lasting impact on them. My district passed their budget, thank god, despite the idiot governor of NJ trying to get everyone to vote down their budgets (nothing helps property values and the future of the state like making sure your public education system crumbles) and I am so glad my town supports education.

Having said that...

Holy crap. Some parents are such morons.

I have one... the boy is now in sixth grade. He has been a mess since he was in kindergarten... a MESS. Mute for years, couldn't do any of the work... and every time the teachers try to do something, the family goes crazy. The mother has sued the school twice when we tried to get him classified as special ed (I would think that not talking for six years, not hearing a single instruction, not being able to do any of the work, and literally having NO emotional reaction to anything might be a clue...) and cost us a TON of money, money the school simply cannot afford. Every year teachers gathered material to try to get the kid help, tried to show that the kid desperately needed more support, but every year the parents fought us.

This year we spent months and months on it, as the boy failed EVERY subject and literally could not do ANYTHING... trying desperately to get this kid tested to see what is wrong, to get this kid officially recognized as having a problem so he can have some help come middle school, and again, the parents refused to sign anything or get this kid help. Now, this kid is DEAD in the middle school with no paperwork... he won't get any sort of kiddie glove treatment, no special services, nothing... the first day he won't do anything and the teachers will just bomb him. We've warned the parents OVER AND OVER about this, and they just don't give a crap... they insist there is nothing wrong.

And on top of that, they constantly harass the teachers about creating special modified assignments and study guides and private lessons and all this other crap for the kid. NO!! You idiot, if you FIGHT us EVERY STEP OF THE WAY when we try to have THIS EXACT STUFF put into the kids educational program, why on EARTH would we then go ahead and do it for you anyway off the books? Do they REALLY think they are going to get this stuff in middle school and high school, that teachers will do all the WORK for special education but not actually classify the kid? How on EARTH does that help anyone?

Just moronic.

My wife (who is an elementary school counselor) had a good one too... there is a fourth grader in her school who is, frankly, a sociopath. Violent, abusive... has hurt a number of kids... suspected of killing two cats in the neighborhood... defecated on the bathroom floor (although they cannot prove it, three different times he has come into the office with this smirk and reported "Someone made a mess on the floor." Yeah, three times you happen to find it?) And he has NO empathy... no remorse... a totally flat affect. The classic "Holy cow you are going to be a serial killer."

And what do the idiot parents do? Nothing. Well, no, they fight the school NONSTOP, sue the school for trying to get the kid help, scream and curse at the principal when the kid is removed for the school bus for punching a second grade girl in the face "because he didn't like her voice." You idiot parents... YOUR KID IS REALLY DISTURBED AND NEEDS HELP, and because you are too into your own careers and pretending everything is fine, you are hurting him even more.

It is insane how many crappy parents there are. The kid who is failing everything, and then cuts school constantly (he plays sick) and mom lets him stay home... only to have him skateboard past the classroom window an hour after school starts. And then they have the gall to call up and ask that we give up our lunch to give him extra help? Are you kidding?

Or how about the kid who cusses in class, who pushes kids on the playground, who talks back and draws dirty pictures on the bathroom wall? Mom walks into the Parent-Teacher conference, the teacher says "We have grave concerns about his behavior" and mom says "Oh, it isn't grades? So what?" and WALKS OUT.

Or how about the kid who doesn't show up for school, and no parent calls, and when the school calls home at 9:30 panicked that the kid is not there and we don't know why the mom, being awoken by the phone, says that she thought it was a snow day because there were a few snowflakes that fell the night before. IT IS SUNNY AND 50 DEGREES OUTSIDE, not a FLAKE of snow in sight, and NO phone call about a snow day... and you thought it was a snow day? And do they bring the kid in from four blocks away? Nope. And this is a C-D student who needs all the time in school he can get!

Or how about the CLEARLY autistic fifth grade girl, who literally stands in one place and stares at the wall and drools, who takes THIRTY MINUTES to unpack her backpack, and who cannot do one single thing in the classroom? Nope! Nothing wrong there! Mom won't even HEAR the word autistic, and won't let the school do anything about it... in fact, she FORCED her out of special education for the one subject she got it and into the regular classroom, where she is failing everything. Come sixth grade, she is dead, and the middle school? Phew, forget it.

Oh, and forget giving them modified assignments... well, that isn't true, the parents ALL want modified assignments, but you CAN'T put that on a report card, or they can sue us (as they have in the past.) Yep... the A that the kid who drools on himself gets for putting his name on his paper is the same as the A that the honors kid gets as far as report cards go, because if we say ANYTHING otherwise, we get sued.

Or how about the kid who plays touch football at recess, gets pushed over a bit too hard (not hard enough to go to the nurse, not hard enough to even tell the adults who were on duty) and the parents SUE THE SCHOOL. Yeah, because the school isn't already strapped enough for money... getting caught up in some moronic lawsuit is TOTALLY the way to go.

Oh, and in that case? The other family SUED THE SCHOOL also. Yep, because a voted-down budget isn't enough to deal with.

It happens constantly. F'ing constantly. I have so many hundreds and hundreds of stories... I hate people sometimes, and I am often reminded that the most idiotic people that I hate are often also idiotic parents.