Last night I made the huge mistake of coming home from work and checking my school email.
I had received a nasty email from a parent, one of my F students' parents. The mom proceeded to blame me and imply that her son was failing because he should've never been in Spanish 2 in the first place. The mom proceeded to bash me left and right about things that are completely out of my control.
She told me her son came in for help and found himself helpless, when he hasn't come in ONCE this semester to get help.
She told me her son studied for hours on end, but continued to do poorly on quizzes. Doesn't this tell her that her son needs some new tools or ideas on how to study the material?
She told me her son feels too nervous in my class. I would too, in a class of 34 students during 7th period.
She told me her son is failing because his counselor and I set him up for failure.
I couldn't let the email sit there, unanswered all weekend...
So I sat down, swallowed my pride and started writing.
a) your son passed last semester, there's no reason why you should be telling me he was set up for failure
b) your son hasn't come in once this semester for extra help. Don't tell me he hasn't been taken care of, when he hasn't even been there!
c) don't tell me he is overwhelmed in class, when I give students at least 10-15 minutes of preparation time before I call on any of them for an answer.
d) don't tell me to "check his notes." It means nothing to check them, because he probably hasn't been studying correctly, so he can have 256 pages of notes and continue to fail if his studying habits are not practical!
e) don't sass me. You b****. I didn't say that, but I wanted to.
f) don't blame me for the teacher your son had on his first year. I had nothing to do with it. Neither did the counselor.
Yesterday I hated myself for checking my email, and I -once again- hated my job. Those are my confessions.
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