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Thursday, October 4, 2007
Parents And Teachers: Where Is The Love?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning I’ve been reading all the comments on ajc.com about a Cobb County employee accused of duct-taping a 10-year-old’s mouth shut when the boy apparently acted up during an after-school activity.
It didn’t take long before I got to the predictable finger-pointing.
“Way to go!” one teacher exclaimed. “Mother needs to teach her child how to behave appropriately, rather than raising a stink because she’s a poor parent…”
“There is simply no excuse for this type of action,” another commentator, an outraged parent, countered. “These people are supposed to be TRAINED PROFESSIONALS. Surely, they can deal with chatty children better than this!”
Now we have no idea from the article exactly what the child did to lead to this kind of punishment — if it actually occurred. Of course, that didn’t stop parents or teachers from taking sides.
But here’s what I don’t get: Why does each automatically assume the other is to blame?
Certainly, this doesn’t happen in every discipline case. But it seems to happen far more than it should.
So I really want to know: When it comes to the parent-teacher relationship, why is there so much distrust?
UPDATE: In case you missed the latest article on the Cobb County case, the employee told school system officials that the boy agreed to have his mouth taped shut.
“It wasn’t malicious or forced,” system spokesman Jay Dillon was quoted as saying. “But it certainly was not an appropriate or smart thing to do.”
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