Parents to be Fined for Skipping Meetings

Teachers would hate it. They already have to sit through too many meetings with parents who don't care. Forcing them to come to a meeting would be no more effective than forcing students to go to school.

If they don't care enough to attend a meeting when their student is in trouble acadmically, it's pointless to force them.

 

Talk about a scary mentality. good grief.

 

Depends on how good your school district is, I suppose. I just read a new evaluation of Texas. Came out 48th of 50 states. My district scores well above the national average, but for every district like mine, there are several like yours.

Usually, teachers call for a parent meeting only if they are dissatisfied with the progress of the student, and they think a meeting with the parents might help.

Often, we find it doesn't. Those aren't so good. Often, it does. And that is a relief to teachers and parents (and often the student).

And sometimes, a parent breaks down and cries with relief, when they realize they aren't terrible parents when their student refuses to succeed. They sometimes do everything right, but the student refuses to accept responsibility for him or herself. That's therapeutic.

And sometimes it's therapeutic for us. Many times, teachers say "It's a lot easer caring, now that I see what he has to deal with at home."

Caring is always the struggle. Often the kids hardest to care about are the ones who need it most.

 

We try to attend all meetings, but this is ridiculous!
We are becoming a police state!

 

The Founding Fathers of this nation recognized that Freedom and moral virtue are closely linked. As America forgets God, America becomes less free. More and more the government requires people to do what they ought to do freely, and we become less free.

 

I am refering to the proposed bill.

 

Spot on. when you remove God from the public square and there no longer remains the urging of the Holy Ghost then the man is free to do all that he can imagine in his heart and the government replaces God.

 

Like it or not, you are a reflection on the school you went to. Of course it's possible you moved there after you left school.

We use an open house, structured by class period, so that it gets taken care of for students who are doing well, and the rather scarce time we have for conferences is set aside for those students who need it.

That's pretty much what the good districts are doing. It's not very productive to ask parents to give up an hour or two for no purpose.

As a parent myself, I'd be extremely upset if the district said my wife and I had to leave work to have a meeting for no other reason than it was legally required, even though my kid was having no problems in school.

Even if I wasn't a libertarian, that might make me hate government a little. You realize every teacher/parent meeting done for no reason is a waste of taxpayer's money, right?

 

Funny thing though; whenever the school has good administrators, solid programs, and good teachers, there are more good parents!

The most significant factor in predicting academic success of a student is a mother with a graduate degree.

Second is socio-economic standing of the student's family.

Third is father with a graduate degree.

However, a good school makes a difference. Marginal cases are where teachers make the most impact.

Bottom line? This proposed law is pointless and self-defeating. If parents won't willingly come in to work with teachers, forcing them won't do any good at all.

 

The schools in florida attempt to have the parents sign an agreement at the begining of the year that they will be supportive of the teacher and be on top of the homework as well as attend all necessary meetings with the teacher. I am not sure what they think it accomplishes but I do not have a problem with doing thos things and it isnt binding in any way so I signed it and sent it back. Maybe it gives the teachers some comfort.

Interestingly enough I have volunteered to assist the teachers in anyway I can even if it means I might have to rearrange my schedule but they havent taken me up on it. Yet I hear from them struggles they have in dealing with the class with no asstance.

 

Not all schools, at least we don't have that in Orange county. We get a little packet outlining what OCPS thinks is necessary for the student to excell. it outlines parents responsibilities and what is expected from us, but we don't h ave to sign anything.

At any rate it doesn't matter to me anyway. I do not trust the education of my children to the public school system alone. I am in constant contact with the teacher and I make a point of scheduling at least a few conferences during the year, at the teacher's convenience of course.

Although I have also run into those teachers who whine and complain about parents, but have never taken me up on any offer of assistance. Regardless of how many times I offer it.

As for this law. I agree with Galation. What is the point in forcing the parents to come to a meeting and work with the teacher?

 

This guy has obviously not learned from the sound beating of Republicans in the past election.

It seems like the Republicans in Texas, over the past year or two, have taken a dramatic shift to the extreme left (or extreme right, they both equal less rights for us). Fascism and Socialism both equal "no rights for you and unlimited power for me". The problem is figuring out which is which.

What a pointless law. Why should a parent care anymore if they're forced to meet the teacher than they would if they choose not to do so?

If they want to force the parents to do something about their child, then suspend or expel them and let the parents worry about what to do with the child at home.

The single biggest problem in schools today is not underfunding, but rather lack of discipline and leadership in the home.

 

In one sense, that's true. I have about 150 students I teach. I once figured out that about 40% of the work was done for about 10% of the students, mostly from excessive absenteeism, special education, discipline, tutoring, etc.

More than half of that was simply because the student (or parents) chose not to complete work, show up, or comply with school rules, which meant I had to drop my teaching duties to deal with the problem.

Which reduced my effectiveness as a teacher.

And I'm not talking about the things I did before and after my work day, during lunch, etc. I'm talking about things that interrupted my availability to the class as a group.

Obviously, taking care of such things is what I'm paid for, and I don't resent it. But we could do a lot more with a lot less, if it wasn't for that 10%.

Don't know what the answer is, given laws, public attitudes, etc. But if someone does figure this out, I could handle many more students.

 

This law is dumber than the rock the legislator that proposed it climbed out from under!

Galation, two of my kids are in that 10% that you've described. They have chronic illnesses that keep them out of school between 25-50% of the time(stats for this past semester). It IS a lot of work for the teachers involved, there is no denying it. It's a lot of work for me and the kids too. Lots of times I must teach concepts at home that they have missed at school, because there simply isn't time for them to get it from the teachers. Many times my children do the work for a week or two in just a couple of days and they HAVE to learn it because we aren't part of special ed and keep up with the general cirriculum.

These kinds of cases are tough. Sometimes a district has no real set policy for these kinds of cases. It took me a year of constant meetings and research, before my district set up good policies to deal with smart, chronically ill kids(my kids would be in the gifted programs if they were physically able to complete the work. As it is, my eldest is in advanced placement courses in high school).

Communication has ended up being the key for us. We (the teachers and I) don't depend on the kids for the transfer of info. My kids are on to much medication and their lives are either on hold or very busy(we make hay while the sun shines). Instead, the teachers and I communicate directly.

If we didn't, it wouldn't work and my very bright children would be failing. But, how many parents are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to keep up with all this. I can answer this too: NOT MANY.

You can't legislate caring. Far to many parent send their kids to school and never darken the doors. The kids either pick up what they need or they don't, the parents have other things to think about.

This country has it's priorities mixed up, but you can't legislate those either.