The Difficult Parent At School

I think it is extremely important for parents to realize that a teacher has the responsibility for satisfying many other students and parents besides yourself. You should be willing to forgive if your child's teacher makes a mistake or fails to devote full attention to your specific issue. Make sure you are being reasonable in every situation you address.

If you are constantly are confronting your child's teacher with questions about minor issues and request conferences, the teacher will quickly feel annoyed, and become increasingly evasive. Never storm into a meeting angry and ready for an argument. Calm yourself down and make sure you are ready to listen and evaluation the entire situation. According to Stacy DeBroff, author of " The Mom Book Goes To School", here are the things that make a parent difficult for a school setting.

1. Complainer: This is parents frequently calling the teacher or drops in on the classroom to gripe about minor details.

2. Confrontational: This parent constantly pesters the teacher and is unwilling to list to feed back and suggestions.

3. Meddler: This parent typically micromanages every detail of their child's education and personal life.

4. Needy: This parent is on whose hand the teacher has to hold thought every step of the child's education

5. Nowhere-to-be-found: This parent is almost impossible to track down and is never available when teachers need to meet.

6. Overreacting: This parent's first instinct is to barge into the school highly agitated, emotional and irrational.

7. Overachiever: This parent lives vicariously through the high standards they set for the child and the success that child achieves.

Work very hard not to be one of the personalities above.  You will get better results from your child's teacher and working together will help your child get the "Best Education Possible".

Tip #76: Get community and business leaders to become partners with your child's school

If you or someone you know has connections in the community business, ask them to support or adopt your child's school. That brings us to tip #76.

Tip #76: Get community and business leaders to become partners with your child's school.

Businesses can send mentors, supplies, technical support, and monetary support. It is tax deductible to contribute to most educational institutions. Make sure you school stays in contact with your local congressmen and government representatives and let them know the needs of the school. Your school board representative should also be familar with the needs and accomplishment of the school. All of this is important because the community needs to know the wonderful things going on at your school.

Questions to ask and things to do:

1. If you are having a special event, invite the superientendent, school board members, and any other local businesses to participate and enjoy the event.

2. If there are needs at the school, go to local businesses, civic groups, places of worship, and let them know your needs.

3. Get a group of parents and students that are interested in approaching community partners and let them work toward getting them involved with the schools yearly goals.

4. Let the children lead out in approaching local businesses and community leaders because it is very hard for most people to say "no" to children. Make sure they are well prepared for the meeting and can speak intelligenily about the school's request for partnership or assistance.