Your Thoughts on Parent-Teacher Conflicts

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Earlier this week I asked you all, “What are the proper roles of parents and teachers, respectively, in the education of children?” What follows are three very different answers to that question.

Patricia writes knowingly as a mother:

When my daughter’s fourth grade teacher told me she was acting out in class––joking, talking over the teacher, distracting other students––I took decisive action: I began showing up at her school and sitting in the back of her classroom. My daughter hated it. But I was not prepared for how much more the teacher hated it. On the third day I was informed that the principal didn’t want me to sit in on the teacher’s classes anymore.

Tracking down the principal was difficult. Her schedule was full. She was attending district meetings. She simply had no availability in the near future. I persisted and we