Letters: Teachers, parents and students
Re “Partnership for education,” Column, April 15
It’s gratifying to read that Sandy Banks, in light of the Santa Monica High School incident, advocates parents and teachers working together to solve unruly student behavior instead of adults throwing rocks at one another. Unfortunately, unkindly calling some administrators “spineless” only adds to the blame game.
Now, some people still think that teachers are afraid of the principal; that principals are afraid of the superintendent; that the superintendent is afraid of the board of education; that the board is afraid of parents; and that parents, well, are afraid of the kids. Others believe the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
In the end, biblically speaking, we all have to watch the way we live our lives because we “reap what we sow.” Perhaps the words of Helen Keller are apropos: “What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.”
Tom Kaminski
Pasadena
A teacher who has to deal with a disruptive student doesn’t always immediately “presume” anything. He or she is in the immediate reality that requires that the teacher defuse the disruption to minimize the loss of instruction time.
When one student repeatedly creates a disruption and there is no reaction or support from the home, then there is a question of parental responsibility.
Banks gives a very fair description of the dynamics of our society and its relationship with schools. But she then imagines teachers who complain about poor parenting writing off chunks of children as hopeless. She says that teachers need to understand the challenges parents face.
In reality, there is a much larger percentage of teachers who are parents — and who therefore understand the challenges of parenthood — than there are parents who are teachers. It sounds as if Banks doesn’t think teachers have a real understanding of what it is like to be a parent.
Marty Wilson
Whittier
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