Parent Teacher Conferences

Even though parent teacher conferences were last week, I still can't get them out of my head.

Guess what thought they solidified in my head?

That kids generally grow up just like their parents.

I was excited when I saw the parents of many of the kids I've been, well, struggling with come in to visit with me. You want to know what happened 9 times out of 10? After my chat with the parents, I felt the same frustration I felt with the kids. But I at least felt a whole lot more empathetic.

For example, one particular student of mine who had been the cause of 82.6% of my frustration my first couple weeks came in with his mom and stepdad. I was eager to get some strategies from the parents of ways that I could better help their son, who had decided that he no longer thought it was important to listen to absolutely anything I had to say.

Here's what really happened:

His stepdad was noticeably drunk and tried hitting on me in front of his wife.

When I tried to explain the problem to the mom after she came out of the bathroom, she immediately teared up and cried that he was never like this at home and that she thought that all of his school problems had been fixed months ago. She said that she had no idea that he'd been missing school so much (he was missing 2-3 times a week) because she leaves for work before he leaves for school.

By the end, I understood a whole lot more about why the kid acts like he does. And I felt bad for him, and for his parents.

I don't know when schools started becoming the place where morals and values and basic decency are taught, but it definitely looks like it's bending that way.

But on a more positive note, I was grateful to parents who came not because their kid needed it, but because they wanted to show their support and get to know me. I loved it when parents asked me for suggestions on books for picky readers, or how to get their teenager to write more. I loved hearing how one of the dads that came in was reading his daughter Faulkner every night before bed. And I, in all my vanity, just loved it when the parents were actually AWARE that their kid even HAD a student teacher. (Although the blame for that rests more on the kids than the parents, of course).

So although the conferences left me feeling tired, inadequate, and frustrated, I still had hope that there can be a solution for it all.

I just wish I knew it already.