Hey Parents and Guardians,
We teachers are more than happy to answer your questions and concerns via email, but before you hit send, could you ask yourself a couple of questions first?
Before you send that email to your child’s teacher, is it kind?
We are working our educator booties off this year.
A mean email can derail our entire day and even week. We cry over these emails. We lose sleep over these emails. We have panic attacks over these emails. We might even turn a little mean ourselves when we get these emails and lash out at our own loved ones in misdirected anger.
We then have to respond to an unkind email, try to turn the situation around, and wait on pins and needles for another response, which again, could be an angry one.
It’s a vicious cycle.
And before you send that email to your child’s teacher, can you find the information somewhere else?
We are working our educator booties off this year, and parent emails create more work for teachers.
Often times when you email us, the answers to the questions you’re asking have already been given to you. If you look on PowerSchool you can see the answer to why Johnny has an F. He didn’t complete three test grade assignments, and there’s a note for every single missed assignment. If you’re questioning our late work policies, the answer might be on the syllabus, which you actually signed off on, stating that you read and understood the policies laid out on it.
And before you send that email to your child’s teacher, consider if it might be better to come in for a face to face (or a Zoom) conference with all your child’s teachers.
We are working our educator booties off this year, and parent emails create more work for teachers.
It takes a lot less time for us to talk about your concerns versus us writing an email back.
An email that you wrote that maybe took you two minutes to compose can devour our entire 75 minute planning period. Yes, it can really take that long to reacquaint ourselves with your child’s work, write a thoughtful detailed response, and proofread until we go cross eyed–because heaven forbid an unsightly typo exists in it that you could use against us, to further prove your point that we’re incompetent.
And before you send that email to your child’s teacher, and this one is going to be hard to swallow folks so prepare yourselves, ask yourself, could your child be lying to you?
Children lie. All. Of. The. Time.
They cheat. They plagiarize. They fib about why work isn’t done and tell tall tales about their assignments being done when they’re not.
They’ll claim that teachers aren’t helping them and that teachers don’t like them and that teachers are mean and and and and and and and.
And while occasionally these claims might be true, more often than not, they aren’t.
And then when we point out these things are untrue, we still aren’t believed sometimes.
And before you send that email to your child’s teacher, are you a teacher too?
These are the worst emails, emails from parents who are teachers too.
Have I sent a snooty, condescending email to one of Little Thing’s teachers?
Yes.
And I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know everything, I’ve never been in your classroom, and it was a really shitty thing to do.
I’m trying to be better because I know how terrible parent emails can be.
So before you email your child’s teacher ask yourself:
Is it kind?
Can I find the information somewhere else?
Is it better to have a conference?
Is my child lying to me?
Am I teacher too?
