There are so many debates surrounding the education system and everything in it. Yet this one never seems to come up. Over the years more and more things that used to fall on the parent are now becoming built into what the teacher is expected to handle. After being in the school system, I can tell you this is not our job.
It is not my job to teach your child the value of being on time.
I can encourage it and the school might punish tardiness but what he chooses to prioritize is on him.
It is not my job to explain to your child how to tame their emotions.
Once they reach high school, this should be a given or at least an active work in progress. I am not a therapist or a guidance counselor. If they need more support in this area than you as a parent can give, it is your job to get them special help.
It is not my job to set priorities for your child.
They are old enough to drive, they are old enough to decide what they think is important. If that is drinking under the bleachers, sleeping in class, or smoking in the bathroom, that is their choice. You, as the parent are the one meant to help them understand how these might harm them later in life. I will always do my best to support students but I have 6 classes of 32 kids and you have 2. The attention they need is from you, not me.
It is not my job to teach your child how consequences work.
They should have been getting lessons on this all the way up through school, as well as at home. If you are choosing to teach them something different now to help them avoid responsibility for their actions, that is on you. Do not expect me to instill that actions have consequences when you turn around and make sure they never have to face them because it could harm their future. You are teaching them a far bigger lesson than I could.
It is not my job to teach them about disappointment.
Disappoint is a part of human life and it will happen to us all. By high school, most of us have already experienced it severely and learned when it is smart to hope and when it isn’t. If you are encouraging unreasonable things, like a future in pro sports, it is not up to me to crush the dreams you have put in their heads, but be careful because someday someone probably will. If you never teach your child that someone will always lose they don’t understand it. Temper tantrums in a toddler are normal, but in an 18-year-old are not.
It is not my job to teach your child that respect is expected.
I assumed they would know that. The working world will be hard for them if they cannot listen to those in charge or offer those with authority a sign of respect like using “ma’am” or “sir”. You set the precedent for this action. They follow your example and only do what you allow.
It is not my job to teach them that they will have to handle things they don’t like.
They will have to learn to do things they don’t like, work with people they dislike, and be in uncomfortable situations. That is a part of life and one that by the time they get to high school, they should understand. Crying because they get paired with a person who they don’t like for a group project is not an acceptable response and expecting to get paired with someone different because of it is even less.
None of the above is my job as a teacher. It is my job to teach your kid English, math, science, and history. I am supposed to make them good test takers, better writers, and convince them to read occasionally. My job is to prepare them for college or give them an academic basis to be useful in the world. Most of the above I end up doing anyway, some because it comes up inside a classroom and you can’t avoid it. But others because as a teacher you can’t see a child struggle and not attempt to help. It isn’t who you are.
Understand that because we chose to take on the responsibility that does not make it our job. Teachers do not raise your child. We teach them. You are responsible for life truths, emotions, manners, morals, and personality flaws. They need more of you and less of us. Making your child into an emotionally stable well rounded person who can handle life, communicate well, and knows what is important is not our job and we can’t do it properly while trying to do our real job. But it is yours.
Thanks for reading Y’all
