Teacher, at your service
By Angela Watson
Some parent requests are SO above and beyond the call of duty. Here’s a (partial) list of outlandish things I’ve been asked to do over the years. Let me know which ones YOU would honor and which you wouldn’t by adding a comment to this post (just number from 1-5 and put yes or no for each). After the weekend, I’ll share which requests I allowed and which ones got the hand.
Scenario 1:
Parent calls me. “Can you not mark my child tardy anymore? We live out of boundaries and I always get stuck in traffic on the way here. That’s why she’s twenty to thirty minutes late everyday. If we have any more tardies, they’re going to make me switch back to our home school.”
Scenario 2:
Child raises hand. “My mom wants you to call her. She wants to know what’s for lunch today.”
Scenario 3:
Child approaches me. “Can I pass out birthday party invitations? Except I didn’t have enough invitations for everyone in the class, so I made my own.” Pulls out piece of loose-leaf paper with party details on it. “My dad says can you make photocopies for everyone in class?”
Scenario 4:
Parent sends in note. “Our family leave tomorrow October 4 to go to Mexico. She come back January 19. Please you can send work she will miss.”
Scenario 5:
This happened when I taught HeadStart, and the student in question was three and a half years old. “My child doesn’t know how to wipe himself. I need you to take care of that, especially when she goes #2.”
I’m looking forward to reading your responses, and hearing your own outrageous parent demands.
And by the way, I did say yes to two of those requests. Can you guess which ones?
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Sign up to get new Truth for Teachers articles in your inbox
Discussion
Leave a Reply
OR
Join our
community
of educators
If you are a teacher who is interested in contributing to the Truth for Teachers website, please click here for more information.
1) No
2) Yes
3) No
4) No
5) Yes – while teaching him/her how to do it themselves cause ew.
I work at a preschool, and it is a requirement that students be potty trained before starting my class. So at pickup on the SECOND day of school, one mom wanted to make sure I was 1) checking if her daughter had to go potty, 2) pulling down her pants for her and 3) wiping her afterwards. Um, NO, and also, wouldn’t that have been good info to learn before the first day of school? Of course, she knew that it would have meant her kid wasn’t ready…
The teacher down the hall was recently asked if she would please poll all the children in the class to find out who would be coming to one boy’s birthday party. Four-year-olds are even less reliable about RSVPs than their parents!
-TJ
I think you said yes to 3 and 4, although you weren’t happy about it.
1. no
2. no
3. yes
4. no, but I would have with more advance notice
5. absolutely no
1. NO
2. NO
3. NO
4. SEND LESSONS FOR THE PARENT TOO.
5. NO. IF KID CAN’T WIPE, PUT A DIAPER
ON HIM. YEEW-W-W-W.