Teachers - Los Angeles,CA

I am so tired of parents thinking that teachers are supposed to "be nice". If my son's Algebra teacher has a terrible personality but my son is really learning from her--to hell with the personality issue.

Teachers are paid to TEACH. They do not have to be nice.

When you ask a question like this, you need to give specific examples or issues you are dealing with. What you have here is not very constructive.

Oh heavens. If you want to vent, that's one thing. But if you want help, then write down a real explanation about what is going on. Otherwise, you will really get no sympathy here or help with whatever your problem is.

Regardless, your daughter is going to have a lot of teachers in her life unless you homeschool. She will also have bosses unless she is self-employed all her life. How YOU handle her teachers in front of her will either make or break her ability to handle authority figures in her life.

Dawn

Are you an adult?

This sounds like a child's question?

Obviously speak with the teacher herself first and if you cannot solve it, THEN speak with the Principal.

I ditto what Dawn said. BIG teaching moment (FROM YOU!) for your child re: how to deal w/ adversity, people in authority, etc.

Time to pony up and create a positive plan on how to deal with this situation and execute it so that your daughter learns something from it.

PLEASE do not slam witches that way.

Witchcraft or Wicca is a religion. Those of us who are practicing witches are proud of our history of healing and midwifery. We are taught kindness to all. Witches REAL WITCHES understand the concept of what goes around comes around. In other words if we are unkind or hateful to other others will be unkind and hateful to us.

Well, if you have EIGHT children, this CAN'T be the FIRST 'Witch' you've run into, right?

Face palm.

;(

Life is full of challenging people. Teach your daughter how to rise above it. My daughter's 1st grade teacher was a drill sergeant with anger management issues... I volunteered in the class and witnessed some ridiculous behavior first hand. I loved on the kids she picked on and encouraged my daughter to do the same. We worked on being as well behaved as possible because perfection was the standard. Is it fair? No. But guess what, neither is life. I tried very hard not to "bash" the teacher in front of my child. She had been through a lot of loss, her dad and her husband both died the summer before school started. I knew that she was a meanie long before that happened, but I tried to teach my daughter that we need to be kind and compassionate to people who have had a rough time.
Option 2: complain to the principal and get her into another class. But she'll never know how to deal with the next difficult personality she runs across if you keep rescuing her. I think mean teachers are part of life. and a chance for your child to gain a tremendous amount of life experience and patience, but you need to be leading the way by example.

Of course you should talk to the principal, but for your daughter right now
You have two choices
A) teach her to respect herself even when others don't. Teach her to be a student even when surrounded by poor teachers and misbehaving students(many a brilliant young mind has gone to good college from a crappy inner city high school because their parents instilled a love of learning) Prepare her for the inevitable bad boss she will encounter when older.
or B) Teach her she doesnt have to deal politely and respectfully to a bad teacher. This will carry over to bad bosses and cause her to lose many jobs when she is an adult. This will also encourage her to disrespect other authority figures like police and could cause her problems when she is older.

Need more info. If you think it's a personality clash, you might request a parent-teacher conference. If you think she's horrible and detrimental to all the kids and you can't reason with her, you can contact the administration. It's hard to say what to do because we don't know the situation and the age of the child.

document and do not let it get personal, keep it professional.

Talk to the principal? Investigate further to find out whether the teacher is REALLY a wicked witch, or if your daughter's being a brat, or BOTH? Home school?

Hello, Volunteer in the classroom. If you still feel the same way, make an appointment with the principal and ask for a room change for your daughter. Although, I worked in the school where three of my children attended. When my youngest one was going into second grade and I realized he was going into a class with a teacher who yelled all of the time, I thought I would ask to have him moved. I worked with children of other languages and would walk through the school to pick up the students. I asked him one day how he was liking his class. He told me that he loved it. I left it alone and he had a great year. Go and figure. You might just try and feel her out. She may be fine. If you are really concerned with the treatment of students, you can speak to the principal about it.
Good luck.
K. K.

A good teacher can teach the right student anything and a badly matched teacher can ruin any subject. Finding the right match of a teaching style and a learning style is key to a successful learning environment. Decide if this is manageable or need to be changed. Don't be a victim of this is how it has to be, figure out if you want things changed and how it is best for you to change them. Some teachers are tough but do teach, and others are bullies who stand in front of young students and teach fear. Only you know which situation you have and how best to fix this. Find a way to teach your daughter to get through this, be in her classroom to help her, change teachers in the same school, change schools, home school, join a teaching co-op, etc. You do have choices which gives you power to change the circumstances. This moment in time can be a major life moment for her and how she approaches learning in the future, do take your instincts seriously.

talk to the princepal

Homeschool!!:)...really. Well, if you can't or don't want to, have you tried talking to her yet? If you can't do anything about it, you (your daughter)may just have to get through the year the best you can. Relationships have to be worked through all the time. It is a shame that some teachers are this way. Good luck.