I was the parent of the problem child

An Open letter to Educators

I was one of those “proud parents”.

My child was an “angel”, a child who was brought up to be respectful, who made me proud by speaking to adults in a responsible and respectful manner, who did the “right thing” always.

There came a time when I was asked to attend a meeting at his/her school. I was confused. Why would I be a parent requested to attend a meeting at school? This meeting was attended by you, the principal/teacher/person in a position of authority, two persons to be specific. I was informed that my child was causing problems at school. Being disrespectful, disruptive, and/or downright rude at school. Doesn’t matter the cause. I attended with my child. In front of these two persons of authority, my child denied the accusations. Knowing that my child was in a meeting with three adults and denying anything of the sort, I stuck up for my child. I told them right there and then that my child was not a liar, would never lie to me nor them, and therefore, these events never happened. I was indignant. I was mortified that my child could even be accused of these events when my child denied ever being party to these things.

About 6-8 months later, my husband told me that he found my child’s diary and that I needed to read it. I refused. He persisted. I discovered that, not only had my child been obnoxious at school, but that he/she gloated in the fact that they could behave that way, and that I had attended a meeting and defended them to the utmost because I KNEW that they would NEVER have behaved that way. Humiliated? To the core.

You, Principal/teacher/person of authority, in a school, doing your job day-after-day, putting up with crap like this and parents like me, I owe you the deepest, sincerest apology. I am deeply humiliated and disgusted, by not only the behavior of my child, but by the fact that I placed so much weight on their lies and so little weight on your truths. I can never apologize enough to you, and to this day, MANY years later, I still feel the shame and deepest gratitude that I owe to you for your service to the decent children of this world. I’m so sorry. If I knew how to find you again to say this in person, I would, because it haunts me to this day. But I’m so grateful for what you do to help the children who really need you.

Submitted December 06, 2019 at 09:21PM by Deadgoose https://ift.tt/351bB8u