Preaching in Class!
Categories: Léo’s Insights 2024-2025
I am likely bragging a bit, but in all my years in the classroom, it was rare to find myself in confrontations with parents. This claim is supported by the fact that I still remember the few I had.
One parent with a grievance did not contact me, nor did he contact the principal. He went directly to the Superintendent who demanded a meeting with the principal, the parent and me the following week. According to the principal, I had been accused of preaching. When I explained to the principal that I had told a disgruntled student his mark was directly related to his effort and that he had simply reaped what he had sown, the principal pounded his desk, exclaiming that was not preaching but common sense.
All day Saturday I was increasingly concerned about this situation with this parent, a farming neighbour from whom we bought a lot of product. Unafraid of and not really trusting the parent, principal and superintendent, I called the dad and asked to meet with him.
When I arrived, the son was anxious to see how his dad would pummel me. When the parent had completed the recitation of his concerns, I simply asked him if his son had explained the entire scenario. The dad asked, “What do you mean?” I then asked if the son had told him how he had caused a terrible scene in the classroom and shown serious disrespect toward me in front of the entire class? At this juncture, the boy suddenly remembered he had chores to do and started leaving the room. His dad yelled for him to sit down and proceeded to ask me in detail what had happened and how it had transpired.
Needless to say, the big meeting got “mysteriously” cancelled Monday morning, much to everyone’s surprise but mine.
There may be a few morals of this story but we will simply focus on the fact that parents do not usually get the entire story from their children. Whether they are home educated or not, there will always be a tendency for children to carefully omit any parts of the story which will implicate them as guilty. Parents need to glean the missing pieces from what they hear from their children, as they will not likely be getting the whole truth when a child is partly or even completely guilty of an offence.
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