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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > August > 23 > Entry
I don’t want that teacher!
Earlier this week, The Education Wonks asked the question, “Why would you get in your car, drive to your local school, and request a certain teacher (by name) for your child?”
The comments were interesting. Parents who posted largely said there is nothing wrong with requesting a specific teacher for you child. Some even argued it’s a parent’s duty to do so.
But I know lots of teachers who think specifically requesting a teacher (or requesting NOT to have a certain teacher) is improper. One told me she thought this was OK only if the parent had a “compelling reason.”
That’s because parents request the change for lots of bogus reasons. I know one high school that was forced to set a deadline for changing classes because kids would skip the summer reading, then show up a couple days before school starts and ask to change teachers. Other times, parent’s request a change because they’ve “heard” this teacher is mean or unfair or whatever. Or they just want to avoid a teacher who would challenge their child, preferring one that would be an easy A.
When do you think it’s OK to request a different teacher for your child?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Comments
By John
August 23, 2005 5:25 PM | Link to this
From past experience I wish I had known the reputation of a teacher that my child has had the misfortune of having. This teacher isn’t just mean but unprofessional in many ways. She told the kids on the first day that they would be lucky if she was nice to them once a week. One time she took all the pencils and pens away from a kid who was tapping his pencil on his desk (that’s ok) then she gave the kids a test and wouldn’t allow this child to have anything to write with. Of course he got a zero for that test. She was unreasonable and rude at times and yelled at the kids on an almost daily basis. Upon discussing this with others I discovered that she had been moved around from school to school due to this. Also from talking to a former student who I happened to work with I found out that she had been like this for as long as 20 years. Current employees of this particular district refused to talk about her if they knew of her as they were afraid of ramifications. Former co workers of hers where quick to point out what an alful teacher she was when they worked with her. She also had a habit of being off or at an inservice/training on every Friday. My child had an awful school year, and as a 5th grader was ready to quit going to school. The only reason she went every day was because we made her and the teacher had attendance built into her award system. It was the only way my child could get anything from her award system. We never asked to change teachers as we did not become fully aware of how bad she was until more than halfway through the year. Up til then we actually thought our child was lieing about the teacher. It is a shame that this teacher is allowed to teach still but it is hard to fire a 20+ year teacher unless they do something illegal. I feel there are legitimate reasons to request a teacher change after a school year has begun and there are ways to go about it. I also know frow working in a school district that there are teachers who refuse to have kids in their classroom.