PARENTS ARE WORSE THAN THE KIDS



Have you ever met the parent(s) of one of your students and left the meeting thinking “Now I know where they get it from” or were reaffirmed that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree? Well, I had another enlightening experience yesterday when observing the behaviors of the parents at graduation. Having taught the seniors for the past ten months, I’d like to think that I can confidently conclude about the temperaments and personalities of the students who sat in front of me on an almost daily basis. Presumably, you’d think that I would have had plenty of opportunities to match those personalities to their parents and their level of involvement and corrective actions for negative behaviors. But, ah no. That has not been the case. Out of about 80 students, I have only met maybe 15 parents or guardians. I won’t go on another rant about the lack of parental involvement when it comes to academic progress. Today, I just wanted to share my observations while attending the graduation ceremony.

My first observation was that parents are getting younger and younger each year. This is my thirteenth year in the profession and many of the parents look like they are younger than I am.

My second observation was that people don’t get dressed up for graduation any longer. I saw a lot of ripped jeans and tank tops, ill-fitting bodycon dresses, and too much cleavage and thigh meat. It looked more like the guests were going to a backyard barbeque.

My third observation was that adults don’t follow directions and they likely don’t because they are “grown.” The parents were directed to remain seated and not move toward the stage to take pictures. What do you think they did? Not only did they move toward the front, they pulled their children out of the line to receive their diplomas just to take pictures.

My final observation was that having the opportunity to finally match students to their parents, I was able to better understand their behavior and performance in class. Parents were pushing and shoving, cursing, and one mother attempted to fight a staff member who asked her to move back. I have actually had students who I had to remind constantly to watch their mouth (stop cursing) in class during a normal discussion and they would tell me that they speak that way at home to their parents all the time and really did. I have students who are complete hot heads or who are disrespectful to their peers. Observing these parents just affirmed my deductions about why the students behave the way that they do. I understand that this is not always the case, because I have had students who were the polar opposite of everyone in their family. However, the old saying holds true: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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