Do Not Lie to Your Mother!

Three times this past week I received irate messages from mothers saying, "Why did you ________ to my child? He/She didn't do that!" Each time what I did was different, and each time I had not done that to their child!

I am tired of children who lie to their mothers, and then their mothers are annoyed with me. It's not my fault!

Like a student whose cell phone I had taken. The mother called me and asked why I had unfairly confiscated her child's cell phone. Before I even tried to defend myself, I asked what their child had told them... and was told that I took it out of his backpack, for no reason, and he was just sitting there when I swooped down and took it.

I had to laugh.

I said, "Um, that's not quite what happened." Then I explained what had happened. In the first place, our school policy says that students may have cell phones if their parents are worried about their safety getting home. However, they are required to be in their backpack at all times, and off at all times. This does not mean in their pocket.

Her child had his phone out, and was playing games on it. Then, after I had told him sternly to put it away, it had rung during class. That was it; I had taken it. I turned it over to the 6th grade office, and they now had it, so if she wanted to pick it up, she was welcome to do so.

Boy, was she mad, and thankfully not at me, but at her child. I doubt he'll see that phone again for awhile, regardless of when she actually picks it up.

Another student had told her mother that I had not accepted her work, and she wasn't sure why.

Again, irate voicemail. I explained again... she was turning stuff in that was not even from this 9 weeks. Our team has a no-late work policy, but in any case, even if I had made an exception, it was from 4 months ago. I believe any excused work reason had expired.

Finally, a mom was mad because, "I picked on her daughter and had embarrassed her in front of the entire class."

Her daughter had burped in my class, while it was relatively quiet, and she had been playing up everyone for awhile before that to make everyone laugh. It was easy to tell she made it louder than it needed to be, since it was forced sounding, and not at all stifled. So I told her to leave the classroom, and I would be with her in a minute.

The mom told me it was "a natural bodily function, and you can't punish a child for that."

I explained that in my years of teaching, I had never, not even once burped while I was in the classroom. I told her that it wasn't a tiny burp, it was very loud. I explained that I always kicked the kids out when they did things like that, as I didn't want to tell them in front of the all the children that I find them rude and their behavior unacceptable. I personally would find this more embarrassing than being told this same information outside.

So she was finally satisfied with my answers, but not really with my actions.

Do I overreact to burping? I don't think so. Kids these days seem to be deteriorating in manners. I feel that as their teacher, it's part of my job to ensure that they will be able to be in polite society, and manners are a necessary part of that. If they're not getting them at home, I am hopefully helping them learn some. Plus, and this might be more accurate, they are kids. They need reminders.

Anyway, it was a long, long week.

I hope next week will be better.

Wait... next week is the TEST. And we have two parents conferences.

Oh, help.