What To Do When Your Child Hates The Teacher

When I scan the headlines online each morning I open the ones that sound interesting to read the entire article. There was one last Thursday that I did not read at the time but the headline got me thinking: What To Do When Your Child Hates His Teacher. Did I ever hate my teacher?
When I think of my teacher I always think of Mrs. Kimball. She was my teacher at our one-room country school from my third grade year through the eighth grade. And yes, there were times I hated her even though I cannot remember any specific reasons or incidents now.
The difference was that while there were times I was extremely upset I never acted out. We had been taught to respect our elders and especially those elders in authority. We knew if we got into trouble for something at school we would be punished twice - once at school and then again when we got home and our parents heard about it.
Remember the old song "School Days, School Days, Good old golden rule days. 'Readin' and 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic', Taught to the tune of a Hick'ry stick..."? Well, that is the way we were taught - not so much a hickory stick as a rap on the knuckles with a wooden ruler. Or, if you were one of the little kids, you had to hold your hand out for a ruler slap on your palm. There was also being made to stand in a corner at the front of the room with your back to everyone else. Mostly, though, I remember her standing over the one in trouble and chewing him/her out. Mrs. Kimball had a way of making you feel about two feet tall.
In the above picture I am on Mrs. Kimball's left. I was in sixth grade. In front of me was Susan Brown and next to her was Mrs. Kimball's niece, Marylin Yearington. I remember when we heard Marylin's family was moving into our neighborhood. Everyone believed our teacher would show partiality to her nieces, Marylin and Carolyn. She must have heard that's what we expected to happen because she was just the opposite - being much harder on her brother's daughters than she was on the rest of us.

By the time I got to high school, I realized how lucky I had been to have such a good teacher - one who made you learn and not slide by. The country schools had closed by the time we moved back home after Dad died but Mrs. Kimball was still teaching sixth grade in the Corning schools. There were two sixth grade teachers but I was very happy that first Kari and then Preston had my former teacher for sixth grade. They reported that she was still very strict. She was there to be certain you learned something.
When Mrs. Kimball retired from teaching in 1984, I came up with the idea of having a Jasper#2 retirement party for her. I invited the students and their parents from the years she taught our little country school. As an alternative guest book, I made a sign-in sheet for the attendee's name and whether they were Present, Absent or Tardy - just like we had been marked all those years ago. The school was long gone, so the party was held in my Mom's yard.

In this picture are some of the parents of students. LtoR: Russell Vogel, Clifford Brown, Doris and Art Kapple, June Yearington, Vera Kimball with my mom, Ruth Lynam next to her and Evelyn Sackett and Ila Brown behind mom. The previous picture is of me, Mrs. Kimball, Preston and Kari Fleming. Mine were not the only second generation students of hers, just the only ones there that day.

There was a lot of picture taking. Not everyone got in every picture and this one is a little blurred. Starting with the woman in green in back: Virginia Vogel, me and my brother, Ron Lynam. In front: Mrs. Kimball, Carol Vogel with, I think, Doug Olive over her shoulder, Byron Kapple, Doug Brown and Gerald Brown. I think Gerald was in 8th grade when Vera (I finally got to the age where I could call her by her first name) started teaching our school. He was the one who was always in trouble - the only one in my memory who actually got expelled for three days. And, I think, the one Mrs. Kimball was happiest about seeing at her retirement party.

Oh, yes, those six steps for what to do when your child hates his teacher: (1) Expect it. (2) Don't fly off the handle. (3) Get to the heart of the matter. (4) Get perspective from parents and peers. (5) Make a date with the teacher. (6) Take your issue to the higher-ups. I would add if all else fails, change schools.