Day 49-The never-ending battle between parents and teachers

When the doctor, lawyer or architect gives you an advice , you just take it hands down. The same is not true for in case of the teacher. Why?
There are a lot of reasons . Few are as follows:
1. There is no respect for teacher training-lets face it teacher training is quite substandard in our cities.
2. We think that since we have gone through school ourselves, it is no rocket science to educate children
3. Our teachers try to ACCOMODATE parents' requests rather than reasoning with them and convincing them of the right thing(whether the teacher herself knows of what is the right thing is questionable)

As the result, I have noticed the following things in schools
1. Teachers have started using a lot of jargons-like in any other place, jargons alone can keep the parents quiet or even earn some trust
2. Imagination takes a backseat and stereotypes are encouraged
3. Differentail learning or assessment is out of question.
4. Volume of Homework is more important than quality of homework(Let us face it,, parents love it when children do 3 pages of writing and dislike it if their participation in the child's work is asked for)
5. The more worksheets you give the child, the better you are as a teacher
6. Rewards, stars and stickers define how good a teacher you are
7. Teachers are scared to face parents in the PTM(Parent-Teacher meetings) and as a result say mostly good things about children
8. Progress reports never reflect the true picture about the child. Diplomacy takes the front seat and facts are buried.
9. Teachers have to kill themselves spending all their time in maintaining reports(daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly assessment, anecdotal records, statistics, analysis of results, report drafts, final reports -all of these reports with signature of 2 or 3 other colleagues ..uffff..there is no time to plan lessons anymore)

How do we avoid this? We cannot deny the fact that both sides are trying their best to deliver quality.

When you decide to take up an insurance policy. what do you do? You research research and research like there is no tomorrow. When you buy a new house, you research and ask around and consult and take an informed decision. Similarly, when you select a school for your child, it may be wise to do your research for what MATTERS. What is it that matters?another blogpost coming your way

* All ideas expressed here and in the future posts are my personal opinion. You need not agree or adopt any of these ideas if you are not in agreement with the opinions expressed

Good night Universe!

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