So Angelo's parents were relatively quiet for a few weeks. Thankfully, a few contenders came out of the woodwork this past week. Without further ado... gentlemen and ladies... for your consideration.
Parent A: She isn't the type to ask for an appointment. No, she's all about informing you of her intended arrival time and then expecting you to adjust as necessary to accommodate her. I give you Mrs. A.
E-mail: "Good evening, Mr. Angelo. I have an important matter to discuss with you regarding Junior. I am planning to swing by the school at 8:45 tomorrow morning. I look forward to seeing you."
I responded: "Hi Mrs. A. Unfortunately, I am fully booked until noon tomorrow. I could offer you an alternative appointment at [here I suggest three other possible times during the week]. Please let me know if any of these times will work for you."
No response to my message, although our system indicates it was received and read. Sure enough, at precisely 8:45 the next morning, I get a call from the main office indicating that Mrs. A. is there asking for a visitor pass. She's requested a meeting with me. I explain to the secretary that I responded to Mrs. A.'s message indicating some alternative times. Secretary adopts a long-suffering, "please don't put me in the middle of this" voice, and says she's sending Mrs. A. up with a visitor pass (thanks a lot for having my back, main office staff...). As I'm in the middle of another meeting, Mrs. A. raps sharply on my office door. It's 9:10 a.m. I open the door a crack. Mrs. A. (looking annoyed) informs me she has been waiting for awhile. I say, "I responded to your request for an appointment this morning. I told you I'm fully booked until noon and suggested some alternative times." She says dismissively, "This is important!" Oh... well, if it's important, then I guess I'll just cancel on everyone else so I can speak to you. To make a long story short, the purpose of her visit was to re-litigate a point I'd already addressed with her son (I said "No" to something he requested as a matter of policy and she thought she'd get a different answer if she showed up first thing to discuss it with me).
Parent B: Wanted me to switch his son's Chemistry teacher (in October, mind you) because "his learning style doesn't work with [Mr. Chemistry Teacher's] teaching style." Launched into a litany of (mostly unfounded) complaints about the current Chemistry teacher and a case as to why last year's teacher (who happens to also teach Senior Chemistry) is "a better fit". I explained that school policy does not permit teacher requests. I explained that the system is closed to course changes, and that I wouldn't be able to honor the request even if I wanted to. Parent kept waving this aside and continuing with an impassioned plea that his son be moved into the other class (in October... when the term started in August). I looked around for a hidden camera, convinced this was a Candid Camera situation, but no.
Parent C: Wanted help completing her son's college applications. Didn't understand why her son needed to be present for the meeting. When I insisted her son be present for any discussion of college applications, she looked annoyed, acted like he was not there, and pulled up his Common App on HER laptop. It was clear he had never seen these application in his life. When I tried to talk to HIM about HIS applications, she kept craning her neck get in my face as if to say, "Talk to me, not to him." I felt like asking Mom if she took his SATs for him.
From reading about Parent A, I'm getting a picture in my head of her trying to pull the same thing at a doctor's office.
I'm sure making her way past the doctor's receptionists, then knocking on an exam room door to interrupt a doctor during prescheduled time with a patient, wouldn't be acceptable either.
Parent C? I bet her son can't wait to be in college and get away from his mother!
I feel sorry for the future daughter-in-laws of these mothers. I predict they will cause problems in their sons' marriages!
It's a tough choice between A and C, but I'm going with A. It is just so incredible how entitled these people are. They think you are just a concierge in their game of life.
I'm guessing a lot of these people are in panic mode as the college admissions scandal proceedings continue. How will they get junior into "the best" college now? I wouldn't worry. The elite will figure out another way to stay on top!
Parent B-we all like changes. Like the old time westerns when the hero cowboy rode the horse at break neck speed and then jumped off the saddle and onto the next fresh horse to the audience applauding. Gotta love those old time movies. So, good to get a fresh teacher midway through the course. I am also guessing it may be looked at by a few others as a WIN_WIN that chemistry teacher would not shed tears at losing this student, of course unless they are tears of joy!
Parent C-Yes, she will fill out all forms. Yes, she will hold his hand through college, and yes she probably did take the SAT for him.
That leaves A-the beauty of this is what is not written. Dollars to donuts either she, or the father or both have jobs where NO ONE get past the waiting room without an appointment that is set by them and not by the client/customer/rep/fellow employee that needs to see them. Added bonus-no one has a problem or issue, just me! me! me! Cancel those other peons and shoo them out. I HAVE ARRIVED!
(Drum roll...) The trophy goes to parent A who had the nerve to interrupt someone else's meeting time! Obviously, her time and concerns outweigh those of any other person on the planet.
While Angelo was in his office and parent A was in the waiting room, I would have sent her another email informing her that her appointment was not going to happen until noon, and perhaps she should go home and come back later.
Another thing I might have done is email the administrator to come to the waiting room, act surprised, and say, "Oh, my. I though Angelo emailed you to tell you he could not see you this morning. Did you not receive the email?" That would have really embarrassed her and put her in her place.
This has become an issue at our school. While, on the one hand, our Admin would freely acknowledge the basic fairness of attending to students with appointments over parent walk-ins, I know on another level they expect us to soothe the egos of tuition-paying parents. So while they'd never come out and TELL us to go to heroic lengths to squeeze in parents who show up without an appointment, they (Admin) would also prefer not to deal with the fall out, and I think parents know and exploit this. Our Admin wouldn't come right and tell us to re-schedule students, but they might speculate (out loud) as to whether some of those students really care if they are seen in the morning or afternoon. Then again, Admin is also accustomed to how unreasonable and entitled some of these parents can be, and so usually has our back if push comes to shove.
I worked in an elementary school with a great principal. Yes, I'll wait until you get over your envy.
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Okay, he was very supportive and fair. Everything he did was for the good of the school. I knew some parents who had children in that school. They shared with me that they really wanted their child to have a certain teacher the next year, but would NEVER request if from the P because they knew from other parents that he would make sure their child would never have that teacher, including taking their child off the class list if he/she had been place there. That did not sound at all like my P. He didn't bend to all parents' wishes but he was never vindictive. So, one day when we were talking I asked him about it. He admitted that he knew that rumor was going around and was very proud. He admitted it was the best rumor HE ever started! If there was a student who needed special considerations he would call in the teachers who worked with the child and discuss which teacher would meet the child's needs best, but parents could not choose teachers on rumor or whims. If only we could clone him!
Her son "learned so much and did so well with his last year's teacher." This parent "can't understand why his grades are so low."
My response was "I'm confused as well. He and you both say that he learned so much but I'm not seeing that on the tests or the homework he turns in. We've only been reviewing last year's material up to this point. I apologized to him the other day since I made a comment about how I don't give out candy for participating. My classes don't play online games every single day on the smartboard either. Students who haven't had me as a teacher sometimes take a little bit to get used to my style of teaching as it differs significantly from what they may be used to with another teacher."
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10-27-2019, 08:20 PM
