Teachers Need to Stop Blaming Parents for Their Classroom Failures

13Feb
by Leticia Chavez-Garcia

A two-year teacher from Texas has gone viral with her (ridiculous) rant about how parents are to blame for her lack of control in her classroom. You may have seen or heard about this. In fact, the hyperlink here takes you to a story in the Texas paper, the Star that is entitled,

“This teacher’s passion ‘has been wrung completely out.’ Not by pay — but by parents”

Yes parents.  It’s your fault that as a collective bunch, you have raised these bratty children that are causing classroom havoc by putting gum on the window sill and leaving papers on the floor! These 6th grade hellions have no place in society and certainly not in Ms. Marburger’s well managed and well maintained classroom where critical thinking skills and massive learning is happening!  Wait! What? Oh this school is a low performing school where kids are NOT learning how to read, write and do math? Well dang! I guess that also must be the parents fault.

I mean, come on! How ridiculous is the argument that 6th grade kids terrorize a classroom because their parents are jerks?

As a former 6th grade teacher, I am very familiar with exactly what teachers face in the classroom. Let me just say that without a doubt and without question, it is absolutely NOT the parents responsibility or fault that your classroom ends up looking like this. Look, in life and especially in teaching, you teach people how to treat you!  

What I know about preteens and teens from being a parent and from being a teacher is that kids crave structure and discipline. I can remember being the only teacher at my school that invested a good two weeks into classroom expectations, rules, and responsibilities. Every detail that I could imagine about how we would function as a learning team was laid out and practiced. I had to do this to get my expectations across. How could I expect behaviors that my students had no idea were expected or that were never learned? I had to teach my students how to treat me, their classroom and their fellows. This is something that many teachers do not invest time in.  Instead, they blame everyone when their classroom is in disarray and it interferes with the learning process. Thus, poor performing kids…it is a vicious cycle. Totally controllable by the teacher! (All hail to Harry Wong!)

When teachers like Julie Marburger and others like her blame parents, who are forced to send their children to school, remember that you chose to become a teacher and that you have the power to teach and correct bad behavior.

Here’s Julie Marburger’s Facebook post

What do you think?

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Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia is a Mother, Grandmother, former Middle School Teacher, former Member of a School Board of Education and an Education Advocate for hundreds of parents and students in the Inland Empire. Having become a mother at 15, Leticia knows what it’s like to be a single mother trying to navigate the education system. Leticia received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters’ Degree in Education Technology from Cal State Fullerton in her 30’s. Leticia has used her knowledge and experience to help hundreds of families as an Education Advocate in the Inland Empire and currently works as an Education Specialist.

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