Letter To Teacher

Dear Teacher In Question, Thank you for your time and efforts with the children over this past school year. Particularly, I am happy with my childs progression in the soft skill area, specifically manners. I am writing you with a few concerns. Primarily, my concerns include homework and discipline practices. Regarding homework, the comprehensiveness, amount expected and frequency of teacher review are concerns. The comprehensiveness of homework assigned is dubious to me. I have noted much in the spelling and reading areas, but little attention provided to math, science and social studies. Additionally, I cannot recall much homework for language arts either. As a parent, it is my responsibility to be the primary educator in my child’s life, but I am also here to serve as reinforcement to the messages you relay in a given day. Considering the limited scope of homework, my child’s take home work is still limited in volume to reinforce time spent in the classroom. With that said homework, it is also to my understanding for some time, that spelling homework is not being reviewed independly of the children, you are “entrusting” the students. This is a great practice for encouraging accountability and self-rule but without an adult review, compliance cannot be verified. The time and effort that the adults in our child’s life have given to him in the past few years of his schooling, it seems his study skills have regressed over the past year since there is no need to meet a teacher’s expectations as well. I agree that students need to be more responsible, but children need guidelines. Another concern of mine is the discipline environment employed in your classroom. The practice of allowing other students to hand out discipline slips (yellow slips) while empowering to the class, results in a mob mentality effectively allowing the students to run the class and does not foster a healthy education-oriented environment for kids. This is clearly distinct from encouraging self rule. Too rapidly, this situation can result in three yellow slips and a subsequent red slip. Ultimately, students are sentencing one another to detention for causes that may not rise to such a level. I have a hard time discussing any "behavior issues" with my child because several of these slips are coming from other kids. If the slips came from you, the teacher, I would take further action at home. I can have a conference with you; I cannot have a conference with other 3rd graders to discuss a given situation. As a result, I feel peer-on-peer discipline lacks credibility and I will not discuss it with my child. This form of discipline does not provide for positive change, and only serves to lower my child’s self-esteem. I believe the message intended to be sent to students is that they should do right by one another; however it does not appear that the merits are being evaluated by an adult. In the end, the effectiveness of the intended message is being lost. In the past we have had this concern, but when you discipline a child, it should not always be in front of the class. I understand the other children may be making allegations, which have eilicited the response, but correction in front of an entire class is essentially tantamount to a public stoning. Furthermore, such a public display of discipline results in the remainder of the class turning “telling on someone” into a game – further alienating the child and promoting a hostile environment. On the same note, when my child tries to defend himself, you only shoot down his statements. My child is not perfect and does need adult guidance, but he is a good kid with good intentions. However, the public ridacule model currently employed in the environment has resulted in a marked deterioration in his drive and initiative causing greater concern for his future success. I hope that over the summer as we prepare for school next September, I am able to get him excited about school again. He used to look forward to going but that is not the case anymore. Please think about what you are saying to him and other children and how they may feel when engaging in disciplinary discussion. I am sure you tell kids all the time "do unto others.” I am copying the principle in this letter to reinforce my message. As a professional in charge of educating, leading and developing children, you need to hold yourself to a higher standard than the behavior you displayed this year. Your words and actions have a profound impact on these impressionable children. Sure, even I, as a parent makes the same mistakes, no one is perfect, however these are pivotal years in a child’s life and if a love of learning is lost because of classroom humiliation, lack of concern, and apathy towards development, you failed as a teacher. We all have to reevaluate the way we handle certain situations and improve upon them. Please look at this letter as a way to improve on certain situations. Thank you,