If I may point out one incident out of many, Tabor is AGHAST at the teacher’s reaction that a parent would DEMAND to find out how the teacher arrived at a score of two on a six point scale for spelling quizzes. It’s thirty percent! Why would anyone put up with being asked to explain something so utterly basic in a situation where the learning of the child is being discussed. Put this in the context of eighteen back to back parent conferences in terms of time available for pointless activity. These folks need special help.

They weren’t asking about the school’s methodology. The parents were delaying to buy time to think during an interview. Lots of people do this. It is one that parents who are administrators often use as they try to convince their child’s teacher that they have influence over her career.

Frankly I don’t understand why he thinks that education schools can or should teach the interpersonal skills needed for a confrontational parent interview. He may be thinking of a bag of tools recapitulating the obvious for people who think of teachers AND parents as simpletons.

Ms K had eighteen parent conferences in one day. Is that in any way normal? Do they take a half day off to do nothing but parent meetings?

Finally, the cell phone incident was verging on rude in terms of normal behavior. I hope the parent apologized. The teacher could easily have spoken with the father by phone at another time. (I asked six people, two of whom felt it was normal, two disconcerting, and two rude.)

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Thank you so much for inclusion, and I hope I’m able to help some students with proper high school class selection to maximize their chances for college admission.

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