Schools and Control

I would never have ever ever pushed the buttons of a teacher or choir
director or principals wife. No, not me.

There seems to be a teacher preparation method that instructs young
teachers to "involve" the children in the classroom structure and
leadership. This will give the children "ownership" and make them
feel "valued". OK, wonderful, but just who is in charge? Often it
seems it is the kids. One of the local SDA schools seems to focus on
student satisfaction and "self esteem" rather then academics and
sound instruction. The families in the region openly comment, " you
go to this school for the academics and to that school for the good
self esteem." As if a quality school could not offer both at the same
time.

I have commented here before that I was invited to sit on a "parent's
panel" is a teacher training seminar at PUC, this was a couple years
ago. In the seminar the panel of parents were presented with various
parent/teacher communication opportunities. Your kid hit another
child, your kid lit the bathroom on fire, whatever...
In each situation the parents were asked to express how the school
should handle the situation and communicate with the parents and
child. After each parent expressed what they thought should be done,
the facilitator explained to the teachers in training exactly how to
respond to that type of parental "meddeling or micro manageing". The
student teachers were told over and over. "you are the teacher and
you need to not let the parent's desires control the relationship."
So the teacher is supposed to be in charge and if the parent does not
like the teacher classroom style, go ahead, talk to the teacher but
don't expect any great results. The teacher is in charge.