Yes, you can work with a difficult teacher

October 17, 4:56 PMEducation Headlines ExaminerAndrea Hermitt

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At some point in your child’s education, you will encounter what you believe to be a difficult teacher.  Whether that teacher is actually difficult or not and to what degree is a different matter to sort out, but if you, the student, and the teacher have butt heads there is a problem.

Unfortunately, for many families, they use these difficulties to make excuses for lack of success and allow the child fail.  Instead of giving the child excuses for not doing well, and blaming the teacher for failures, you as a parent can work with the teacher to get the best results for the child.  

First, you must speak to the child to find out where the problem is for them and why they are not seeing eye-to-eye with the teacher.  Teach the child to separate emotions from the task-at-hand so they can function better in the class.  

Over-communicate with the teacher.  If the problem is discipline issue, then you want to know it if your child so much as sneezes without raising their had.  If you can be engaged to that level, the teacher will understand that you as a parent are involved with your child and may learn to see your child differently.  If the issue is in the child not meeting the teacher’s expectations, then you need to ask the teacher whenever an assignment is not crystal clear so that you and your child make no mistaken assumptions.  

Volunteer to help in the class if the student is young and demand to sit in on the class if the student is older.  This will let the student and teacher know for sure that it is in fact YOU the parent who is in charge of this teacher-student relationship and that any issues beyond actually educational instruction need to be filtered through you.

If you can do all of these things from a caring parent perspective without anger, and emotion, even the most difficult teacher can in the end become your child’s ally and your child will therefore be successful.