About 60% of teachers in one well-off Maryland county say they have been harassed by so-called “helicopter” parents, according to the local union’s job-satisfaction survey. “The workload is bad, but coupled with over-demanding parents, the job is horrible,” said union president Ann DeLacy. “Teachers are leaving teaching because of parents. … The turnover is incredible. I have teachers who refuse to teach special education.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-e.ho.helicopter04mar04,0,4583219.story
Thank goodness I’m not one of those overbearing parents. A. Gilman
By: ajgilman1 on March 9, 2008
at 10:13 pm
Teachers are leaving because of parents? Hmmm…I’d bet there are 3 sides to the story and Baltimore is giving us a small piece of one of them.
1. The Parents
2. The Teachers
3. The Admin
Parents blame the teachers, teachers blame the parents and also quietly blames administration who blames the teacher when teacher takes matter to admin and admin doesn’t lend much help to resolution so now teacher is leaving because a few parents and more administration wedge teachers between a rock and a hard place.
Please let’s not scapegoat parents for red-tape and politics that keep teachers from teaching.
Sure some parents are overwhelming and should stay out of the classroom; and some teachers are incompetent and should stay out of the classroom too. (that’s the missing part of the story)
Overall spending on American education leaves the system grossly inadequate and struggling to compete with other countries who bother to set educational standards.
…and I don’t know if I’d tell the world you have special education teachers refusing to teach.
That’s a problem the district should address before the kids get to the building!
…sorry chollie…it ain’t the parents.
By: tnorvie on March 13, 2008
at 6:33 pm
Good thing someone is watching over the teachers…at least someone is. I have an idea, since the teachers now teach to “tests”, we could give each teacher a test. If they pass, then they can deal with the helicopter parents, if they don’t pass, we will cut their paychecks.
By: fourmonkeysandme on March 17, 2008
at 10:26 pm