Thursday, February 10, 2011

Some get help...

     Last night was the parent teacher meetings. That went well; much less painful than I thought it was going to be. Coincidentally, all the parents of the students that are doing well in class came in, while the parents of the students that appear to be struggling did not show in. Hmmm... Anyways, it was very interesting seeing the parents of the students. One interesting case that I will share: There is a student that smells deeply of smoke every morning. (A quick aside, why do parents smoke near their children? In my eyes it's abuse.) Her mother who happened to come in was quite charming however. Still, my eyebrow was raised (on the inside) even while she presented herself as a responsible parent. I later learned (from the teacher) that the mother apparently is just telling us what we want to hear and the young girl in question appears to be suffering from neglect of a sort. What does one do? What does a teacher do in general when parents are not meeting our standards of parenthood? Where does one draw the line on irresponsible parenting? How can a teacher in their limited role best help a child with such profound problems? Maybe I should have gone for a job with Child Protective Services... I could have helped clean it up or something.

5 comments:

  1. That's a real gray area. You've got to ask yourself if you're really helping the child; is the girl going to be better off with her mother she loves and in her own home, or with a bunch of strangers. It really depends on what type of danger the girl is being put in. How old is the girl? If she's old enough to have enough common sense to leave the room when her mother smokes then there really isn't any "true danger." It's a tough area.

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  2. Must've felt bad, wanting to help but not being able to and/or not knowing how to...

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  3. Unfortunately there's no black and white answer to that question. It's completely situational.

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  4. Man... that's such a hard moral gray zone...

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  5. If it's really black and white -- i.e. good teacher / bad parents -- then you need to get that kid to realize it. Do that, and they'll "live" at school, even if they happen to sleep somewhere else. As long as their parents' house is where they feel rooted, nothing will change in them until it's too late (i.e. they'll move out eventually and find themselves, but at that point they'll already be dropouts).

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