I have never made a complaint about a teacher for either of my daughters. I was brought up with parents who taught us to respect authority. If I came home from school complaining that my teacher hated me and gave me too much homework, my Mom would tell me to get my butt at my desk chair and get started on it. She’d warn me that if I told her anything again about a teacher my butt would be red.
That’s not to say that if something was seriously wrong that my parents wouldn’t listen. One time I had a teacher that gave me a lot of work to do right after I had knee surgery. I was still not able to sit up, on pain medication, etc. My Mom talked to her about it. I know she handled it with respect and sincerity but she got her point across.
Today I had to do something similar. Peanut complained that one of her teachers was yelling at students. I explained that it’s hard sometimes, everyone has bad days, etc. But when she came home and told me that the teacher yelled at a friend of hers who is a bit slower than her and she cried while telling me I knew I had to do something. This wasn’t a normal complaint.
I called the principal who asked me to come in for a meeting with the teacher. Today was the day. When I went in to his office I was surprised to find that she has her union representative with her. I was informed that she had the right to do this. It was a bit unnerving for me.
I asked if before the meeting began I could say something. I explained that when I called the principal I told him that I understand that there are two sides to every story and I wasn’t accusing the teacher of anything. I wanted to find out what was happening.
The meeting ended up going well once the teacher let her guard down. The principal stated that he knew me well, that I was a volunteer at the school and that I had never made a complaint before. He reiterated that I did say that I was not accusing the teacher.
The teacher spoke to my daughter and explained that when she raises her voice it is because of the area being so loud and to get the children’s attention. It is not meant to be anything other than a means to communicate to two classes who are very active and busy.
Peanut came home and told me that this teacher spoke to her and said that if she is upset about anything she can go to her or any other teacher nearby. She felt better and I was able to put this behind me. Hubby agreed with what I was doing. He got to read the notes from the meeting and he’s going to talk to her about how people communicate in different ways, very subtly of course and not right away.
You handled it very well, and the teacher sounds pretty decent. Otherwise, it’d have very messy.
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