And The Hits Just Keep On Comin'
I still can't share everything about the events of this week. But in order to appreciate the rest of this post, you need to know this: there's a parent who's mad at me. Really, really mad.Yesterday I made 5 calls. 2 of them weren't home. 1 was disconnected. 1 wanted to know why I wasn't doing more to help her son. And the other one yelled. Just yelled. At one point, I actually put the phone down and answered some e-mail until I heard the yelling stop. She had been going at it for over two minutes straight. That's some serious yelling.
See, I had told her that her daughter was coming late to school every day. Her daughter had told her she didn't have to come until 8:00. I told her it was 7:45. That's when the yelling began. How dare I tell her to be there early when the other students don't have to be. She has to walk her sister to school in the morning. She won't be there until 8:00, if then!
I hung up during the second prolonged bout of yelling.
Maybe it's because I was brought up to be a rule-abider...which I am...for the most part...but I've never understood the attitude of "that doesn't apply to me." And I am getting just REAL tired of being the target of abuse.
A student told me yesterday that she didn't like me. I asked her if she liked her other teachers and she said, "No. I hate all of them." I told her that when one person has a problem with many people, the problem seldom lies with the many. She didn't get it.
Tomorrow I have a conference set up with the parent who is really, really mad at me. And I mean I have my own security detail assigned to me this week he's so mad. Next week I'll tell you what I did to make him so mad. And yes, I'll be bringing somebody with me to the meeting. A very large vice principal I know. In the meantime, pray for all these angry souls and especially for the children who are learning from them.
And pray that this week ends. Soon.
(Dave and Lori are still alive! This week's Amazing Race ended with a great big "To Be Continued." This week, my favorite nerds zip-lined over 300 feet of Brazilian jungle, dived into an Olympic swimming pool in the freezing cold (well, Lori did), and got lost in Moscow. Stay tuned.)
posted by Thurman8er @ 7:36 AM
3 Comments:
Several years ago I attended an inservice on some of the latest brain research as it related to education. In this training we were told that when someone is yelled at or is threatened, the brain goes into a limbic phase. It is a basic, almost animalistic stage of the brain that puts the brain in survival mode. No learning or meaningful dialogue can take place when one’s brain is in that stage. This is true for adults as well as kids. There isn’t any excuse for anyone to yell at a teacher when discussing their child and hanging up on a screaming parent is certainly standard protocol as far as I’m concerned.
Hang in there Steve. You’ll be in my prayers when you have your meeting tomorrow. It’s been my experience that a screamer over the phone normally becomes a pussy-cat when they step on our turf. Having a “large” administrator present can bring about that pussy-cat mode in parents.
Sorry to know you're going through trouble. I hate it when people are mad at me. I often think it's my fault.
BTW, I like you. (I'm yelling that out at this very moment.)
How did the meeting go?
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