The Core Knowledge Blog

Wall Street Journal blogger Sue Shellenbarger asks what’s a parent supposed to do when a child’s teacher is a rotten apple?  And how do you know?  Her children had many more good teachers than bad in public schools.  But she describes a “dark chapter” in her family’s life–the year of the bad teacher:

Unknown to me, the teacher singled out my daughter for ridicule for her offbeat clothing choices.  The teacher also made her a target of frequent criticism for the ideas she tried to bring up in class. The big picture was no better; students in the class made poor progress in reading and arithmetic….I should have realized far sooner that my daughter had been dealt a losing card. But my daughter said nothing. I was concerned that her interest in school seemed to dip that year, but she internalized most of her distress, blaming herself, she finally told me years later. Meanwhile, this teacher had a great reputation among parents. She had a warm, hip façade; she knew how to meet-and-greet, and she always behaved well when I volunteered in the classroom. We live and learn.

In this case, she writes, the system works.  The teacher was pressured by the principal to depart and is no longer teaching.  Still, parents are unaware until too late, she notes, that their children have been dealt a losing hand.  Most of the commenters on the WSJ tend to agree.  One teacher, writes one, ”berated and humiliated my child in front of her class to the point where I later discovered “How to Commit Suicide Painlessly” websites on her laptop.  My child admitted it was the teacher who pushed her to the edge.”