We had a meeting in the morning at the school. A bunch of new teachers came but some others are leaving. The sad and ridiculous thing is that last year, a teacher got caught in the crossfire of a group of parents, questioning her teaching methods. Nonetheless, I think this teacher is strict, but excellent and competent. Anyway, the principal called those parents and they had a discussion. I do not know what the outcome of this discussion was but what I know is that this teacher took this as an offense and she was really hurt.
And she is right: it is ridiculous that parents with zero teaching experience butt into teachers’ job. How do they dare at all? Do we stick our nose into their job? Anyway, this teacher has breast cancer now. And yes, we blame the parents and the anxiety that she had to endure.
Another thing is that my wife is son going to give birth to our child, possibly tomorrow or in the following days. In my country, the father has the right to take 5 days in a row after the child is born. I asked the principal if I could take these days but she said it would not be necessary, just go when I have to go but not to leave them alone because there are a lot of work.
I find it odd because it’s a big turning point in my life, and I have the right to take those days off, but I’m trying to look at it positively. We work from 8 AM to 12 PM most of the time, and I’m okay with that. What is more, I have university classes on Friday and I will be on paternity leave from next February for 1.5 years and they probably think that I want too much.
On the other hand, I have a feeling that my colleagues expect me to keep them updated in the following days so they will not talk about me behind my back. Because they do, according to my principal, who told me last year to try not to be away that often because the teachers talk behind me. And she is right, they actually do because when someone is missing for days, there are mean-spirited gossips in the faculty room.
Another this is that my principal told me that a parent asked her how come I did not teach the Hungarian Conquest topic from History. According to what I said, my students’ poor language skills would have caused additional issues for the parents if we had moved more quickly with the curriculum. Which is true – the material is so extended and I can only go slowly with the students – otherwise it would be too much for them and they would struggle the whole year. The principal, however, was not satisfied with this response and advised me to prioritize the critical material. Sure, I will teach the English Civil War and leave out the Industrial Revolution.
It is really frustrating to see that I gave good grades to my students all year because I was a bit lenient and gave them to chance to fix their bad test results the following class. But still, parents complain!
Well, this will be over. So far, I have been a nice teacher. From now on, I will be strict and we will be in a rush with the material, I will not care if they understand it or not. As the parents said, I needed to cover all materials, so we will get to the end of the curriculum one way or the other. And then they can complain.