As a former Biology teacher, I had 120-150 students, which equates to hundreds of parents. I worked in a relatively wealthy district in the Philly suburbs. The district made me post all assignments online, all grades online and answer all parent emails. We were highly "connected" and...It was an absolute NIGHTMARE! Do you have any idea what it's like having an ARMY of helicopter parents (er...bosses) telling you how to do your job, questioning every assignment you give, every grade you give, every move you make? My 20 min lunch break was spent justifying everything I did to parents whose goal, first and foremost, was to make sure their kids got the highest possible grades, regardless if they learned anything in high school whatsoever. If other schools are anything like this one, parents are OUT OF CONTROL, period. How do they expect their kids to learn to be productive members of society if you don't let them fail and don't let them learn on their own?
Plus, posting assignments online gave the students yet another reason to not listen during class. Why should they, when everything was posted online? Heaven forbid I gave an assignment and didn't post it online. Then the parents were telling me their kids weren't responsible for it...ugh.
Don't get me wrong...in this digital age, students absolutely need to learn about computers, web, etc, but it is a horrible idea to include parents on every single aspect of the classroom. We're raising a generation of coddled, unprepared, whiny, unimaginative babies who expect instant answers to all of life's questions on Wikipedia.
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As a former Biology teacher, I had 120-150 students, which equates to hundreds of parents. I worked in a relatively wealthy district in the Philly suburbs. The district made me post all assignments online, all grades online and answer all parent emails. We were highly "connected" and...It was an absolute NIGHTMARE! Do you have any idea what it's like having an ARMY of helicopter parents (er...bosses) telling you how to do your job, questioning every assignment you give, every grade you give, every move you make? My 20 min lunch break was spent justifying everything I did to parents whose goal, first and foremost, was to make sure their kids got the highest possible grades, regardless if they learned anything in high school whatsoever. If other schools are anything like this one, parents are OUT OF CONTROL, period. How do they expect their kids to learn to be productive members of society if you don't let them fail and don't let them learn on their own? Plus, posting assignments online gave the students yet another reason to not listen during class. Why should they, when everything was posted online? Heaven forbid I gave an assignment and didn't post it online. Then the parents were telling me their kids weren't responsible for it...ugh. Don't get me wrong...in this digital age, students absolutely need to learn about computers, web, etc, but it is a horrible idea to include parents on every single aspect of the classroom. We're raising a generation of coddled, unprepared, whiny, unimaginative babies who expect instant answers to all of life's questions on Wikipedia.