toto wrote:

Any anecdotes?

A friend of my sister was teaching in an inner city school in
Baltimore some years ago. She asked a parent to come in for a
conference because one of her students was not making an effort to
learn to read. The parent totally did not see why she was upset.
"But," protested my sister's friend, "he will need to learn to read to
get a job."

"Why? He can just go on welfare like the rest of us." was the
response.

I had a parent come in and complain about the fact that I saw her son
running to school in the morning (instead of taking the bus), and did
not call and tell her. (This was 6th grade in middle school.) He
wasn't even in my homeroom.

The same parent complained because I asked the kids to do a weather
instrument as a project at home, and I gave them instruction sheets
with several different ones on it (one of which was a rain gauge which
consisted only of an open topped can or container with markings on the
side). The child evidently decided to do one which required a half
gallon milk carton and a broom straw. The mom 'had to' get a half
gallon of milk when she normally got gallons, and 'had to' go out and
buy a broom.







I have several, but the one that is pertinent he
A parent came to the school with a complaint about homework in
geometry class. Parent said "If he can't get his work done in school,
he won't do it at home. It cuts into my quality time with my son if
he has homework to do."

You have to subscribe to Time Magazine (or go to the library
to get the whole article). I read it in print.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050221/story.html

Parents Behaving Badly

Inside the new classroom power struggle: What teachers say
about pushy moms and dads who drive them crazy

By NANCY GIBBS

Posted Sunday, February 13, 2005
If you could walk past the teachers' lounge and listen in, what sorts
of stories would you hear?

An Iowa high school counselor gets a call from a parent protesting the
C her child received on an assignment. "The parent argued every point
in the essay," recalls the counselor, who soon realized why the mother
was so upset about the grade. "It became apparent that she'd written
it."

A sixth-grade teacher in California tells a girl in her class that she
needs to work on her reading at home, not just in school. "Her mom
came in the next day," the teacher says, "and started yelling at me
that I had emotionally upset her child."

grandma Rosalie