My poor wife is a public school teacher.  She has to deal with pubescent teenagers all day.  That in and of itself is bad, but its not the worst of it.  For the rest of the day she has to deal with the parents of these walking acne scars.

I want you to take a trip back in your time machine.  Remember that test in the eighth grade that you forgot to study for?  Remember how you freaked out and didn't finish the last 4 essay questions (they are called ECR's now).  Could you imagine going home to your parents and explain to them that you didn't finish your exam in the class period and that it was unfair that you couldn't take another class period to finish the test?  If I would have done that my parents would have realized that I hadn't acted responsibly in my academic endeavor and would have summarily given me the business (business end of a belt, wooden spoon, etc.).

Nowadays, if a student experiences a similar event the parent will fight tooth and nail to get their child a better grade.  Here is a message to all of you parents out there.  Your child is not a genius.  Your child isn't even smart enough to know what they don't know.  It is the teacher's job to impart that knowledge upon your child.  It is your job to instill a sense of academic responsibility and a work ethic that will benefit them in the future.  It is not your job to beg for fake grades so your child can get into Berkeley.  I would bet that a smaller, less expensive, school would do your selfish little darling better.  Especially when they flunk out.

I think that the most appalling aspect of this is the fact that a parent can pick up the phone and call the teacher directly.  Email is also a plague in my book.  Having to get up off of your seat and actually visit with a teacher used to act as a barrier between these overzealous parents, but now with on-line grading and email the barrage never ends.

Here is the bottom line.  Parents, you need to realize how stupid you were when you were in high school.  Just because your kid has access to the internet and can play video games doesn't mean that he is smarter than you were when you were his age.  Enforce the authority that a teacher has or should rightfully have.  Stop eroding away teacher's stature.  Realize that colleges don't make a good determination of the success level of your child.  Let your children grow up by taking some hard knocks. 

 

Even more than that, parents today have no sense of shame.  Everything is by the child, for the child, and of the child.  To my own sensibilities it seems low ethically to call a teacher to beg for a grade that your teenager didn't rightly earn.  There are many other lessons that can be learned from a bad grade.  Take advantage of these situations to teach your own child a lesson for a change.  Don't run headlong into a situation where you are effectively acting as a bully and a con-artist for your child.  Trying to levy influence against a teacher is cheap and petty.