Veteran teacher confession: I put up zero resistance when parents complain about their child's grades.

I've been teaching at this small middle school in an affluent community for over 15 years now. It's so small that I am the entire English department. I don't have to coordinate my curriculum horizontally or vertically. My admin is very "hands-off," which I like. Her attitude is that, as long as the parents don't complain, the teachers must be doing their jobs correctly, so she lets us do our own thing. But, when the parents do complain, she usually capitulates. I don't blame her. The parents around here can be rather obnoxious about it. Since it's an affluent community, we have a higher-than-average amount of very involved parents. Since it's a small community, and I've been here so long, and my own children went through this school, I've gotten to know a lot of the parents on a personal level. More than half of my students this year, I know their parents because I taught their other children, or our kids have been classmates or teammates over the years. When I began teaching, if a parent complained about their child's grade on something, I'd have documentation to back up my assessment. I'd offer alternative assessments only if the student had a good reason for needing one. The alternative assessments would be equally as difficult, if not more, than the originals. I put up a lot of resistance to the parents. No more. Nowadays, if a parent complains, I will simply ask them if they want me to give their child an alternative (much, much easier) assignment, or just mark the grade as "excused" in the book, so it doesn't count against them. I regret how much time and effort I put into arguing with parents in the past. It was all so pointless. They're going to get what they want anyway. And, in the big picture, their child's grade on a middle school English assignment doesn't mean much. It's not a hill worth fighting over, much less dying on. submitted by /u/Striking-Anxiety-604 [link] [comments]