Quote:This is totally true.  I've told the story before about my sister in law who is a teacher in the DCPS.  She taught at a high risk school in a pretty bad neighborhood fresh out of college.  She still thought she could save the world at this point, but the parents gave her a dose of reality pretty quickly.   She'd have kids who would come to school without proper supplies, or without being fed, or without decent clothing.  In each instance, she'd try to help the kids by buying the supplies they need, or keeping snacks in the room for her students.  She had one particular kid who was just not cutting it, so she had a parent teacher conference.  The parent (singular) showed up and became indignant because my sister in law dared to suggest that this child would benefit from a little more attentiveness from the parent to get the reading skills where they needed to be.  The parent told her in a pretty matter of fact manner that it was HER (my sister in law) job to teach the child how to read, and that the conference was done.

 

This situation was repeated more than once during her time at that school, and in every instance, all that was happening was a perpetuation of the same cycle from one generation to the next.  The mother probably couldn't read well enough to help her child, so she dumped any responsibility on the teacher to take care of that despite the fact that the teacher was dealing with 30+ students daily who all had needs. 

 

DCPS has been doing everything they can to make it difficult for teachers.  They've cut budgets, and squeezed schedules while simultaneously forcing teachers to take on more.  A new policy is being implemented now for the morning care programs.  In the past, breakfast was provided to the underprivileged kids each morning, but apparently much of the food was being discarded because the kids weren't eating it.  So, the superintendent, in his infinite wisdom, decided that it will now be up to the teachers to serve these breakfasts in the classroom starting 30 minutes before class begins in order to assure the kids eat.  Again, assuming the role of the parent here, and taking away from their planning time at the beginning of the day. 

 

DCPS has become a joke.  There are some good schools, but the problem is that there's incompetent leadership at the top, and that incompetence trickles down.  Pair that with indifferent parents, and suddenly you've got teachers caught in the middle who have their hands tied. 

 

Its not just DCPS, FBT and I'm sure you know that. 

 

The scenario you spoke of above happens just about everywhere, nowadays. 

 

I keep referencing "Joe Clark had the right idea" but I guess no one remembers that reference. (Lean On Me). 

 

In that movie there pretty much was a parent JUST LIKE the one you were referencing....and all she cared about was trying to get Principal Clark out of the school and her drug addicted good for nothing slug back into the school, despite her son doing nothing of benefit while there. 

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