Surviving parents

How some kids survive their parents is beyond me.

As a High school teacher, sometimes life can be very frustrating. Especially if you have to teach boring business laws to 17 year old, hyperactive, completely uninterested teenagers.

Off course, that situation would lead to many incidents of disruption and friction in the classroom situation.

I remember feeling particularly frustrated about this one young man, super clever, but just not focused. He got mixed up with the wrong friends and started acting up in the classroom. He bunked, he did not do any work and he did not achieve the marks that he was capable of.

I took it upon myself to engage with his parents at a parent-teacher meeting. I was ready with my files and other evidence to inform the parents, hoping that I would get their full support. This however was not the case.

I met his mother and braced myself. It is never pleasant to tell parents that their children is misbehaving or not working to their full potential. However, I never had the opportunity to even show her his marks. This mother was all about herself. She started talking about her depression and how her husband is never at home and that she is sure he was having an affair. She listed all the medication she was taking and how she is really battling with her self-esteem. Forty five minutes later, I still hadn’t even said a word. Clearly she was not interested in her son’s life or how he was doing at school. At that point I realized that it makes absolutely no difference to the mother what her son was doing as long as she does not have to deal with him. So I decided to not even bother to give her any information, instead, I told her that I had another appointment and that I had to go.

Unbelievable!

I must say that I am very thankful for that experience because it made me realize that all are not equal. Kids come from such diverse circumstances that each of them has to be treated on their own merit. It made me a lot more sensitive to the plight of each learner and that incident made me a better teacher.