Back before I made the decision to open a daycare, I had the fortune of working in a school as an EA (Education Assistant) to help teach.
Although it was only for a short term, the job was amazing, and I must admit I do miss it. Working with teachers in an elementary school was such an honor for me. My respect for teachers is and always will be very deep. One of my personal goals was to become a teacher, a profession that makes a difference (Not that what I do currently doesn’t). Teaching almost felt glamorous to me, so highly respected. I had the opportunity to work with two very accomplished respected teachers, a dream come true. I became more experienced throughout the school year, the teachers began to trust me to work with some of the children. Some of them had disabilities, and some children were struggling to keep up.
Relishing in this new responsibility I worked tirelessly, reading all the material they gave me to learn from. Their trust in me extended to the parents. I was allowed to sit in on the parent teacher conferences. Pride in my work with the students showed through the children’s achievements.
There was a student that had failed to grasp some of the concepts. He needed much more help than what I could solely give. Encouraging me to continue trying, working on different ideas, the teacher was very supportive. In addition, the teacher gave up her lunch hours to work with this student as well. Sending extra work home to help him progress, but having it coming back incomplete. We wrote in his homework journal the importance of parental involvement in his success, only to discover that it hadn’t even been acknowledged.
Although his achievements were low, ours and his efforts were starting to show. His frustration with concentrating, and his inability to grasp some of the concepts, discouraged him. He trusted us to know he was safe in expressing his frustrations, though kindly, we tried to help him calm himself, to focus. His and our efforts went unnoticed by his parents, nor did they participate in his success.
The teachers felt I deserved the recognition, and the praise that comes from happy parents. Feeling honored, I got to to join in the Parent Teacher conference. The parent of the child we worked so hard with was next. Visible angry, she sat down in a huff, presenting her child’s report card. I was shook by this person’s behavior.
The teacher prepared for confrontation. The parent roared her disapproval of her child’s lack of achievement, she glared at both the teacher and I. This was the parent of the student we had both devoted so much time to, working tirelessly helping this child learn. This student had an undiagnosed but obvious learning disability, symptoms completely ignored by his parents. Time and time again both the teacher and I had sent home extra homework, and notes explaining how this student was falling behind. Unfortunately this parent did not see our point of view.
Asking me to step out of the room, the teacher explained in detail everything we had done to help her child. Ending the conference the teacher said that with a proper evaluation her child could get the help he desperately needed. Yelling, the parent degraded the teacher, berated her with foul language, and proceeded to threaten to pull her child from her classroom. “You are failing my child!”, she yelled as she stormed off slamming the door behind her. Glaring at me as she stomped off. Knocking on the door, I slowly opened it asking the teacher if she was okay, my heart broke. Tears streaming down the teacher’s face, she looked up and said “You might want to change your mind on becoming a teacher, after all, not all that glitters is gold”. 🙁