Nationalities

I find it refreshing to speak with other teachers about their problems and issues. More bouncing ideas off of each other than anything else, or venting about certain students. One teacher from Canada who I have been playing basketball with quite a bit lately tells me that some of his worst experiences have been with the parents of Indian students. From what he says, all of the Indian parents think their child is going to be either a doctor or a lawyer, and therefore they have them taking AP Calculus, AP Physics and AP Chemistry during the student's senior year.

According to my friend, there are two problems with this theory...

1. The school only offers AP Calculus at this time and so there is no way AP Chemistry or AP Physics is even an option. Which I feel is unfortunate that this is the case with the school.

2. Most of these students have no business being in any of these classes because they are barely passing Chemistry I.

I have not had a problem with Indian parents yet. The only problem parent that I have had has been Pakistani. We did have a parent-teacher conference and she was unhappy that I did not change her daughter's grade from a "B" to an "A". The parent sent a text to the guidance counselor the next day and told him she wanted to talk to him about the math teacher.

So after meeting with the guidance counselor for about 5 minutes he calls her back and she tells him that she doesn't like the way I handle my class and homework procedures and other things. The counselor agrees with my procedures and continues to support me and my classroom management style (which is a good feeling to have support).

I think parents all over the world would have their own thoughts and feelings about certain teaching styles and methods. However, I am shocked that a parent would actually ask a teacher to change grades. Maybe this happens in the States more often than I realize, but it was shocking for me to experience. Almost a lack of responsibility for the student receiving the grade he/she received and more of an entitlement to a certain grade. In the parent's defense (but it is not much of a defense), grades were changed last year, so I can see where she might think it would happen again.

Another interesting aspect I learned about the school after speaking with the department head, when he arrived at ASB about 4 years ago or so, there was only one track for math all the way through high school. This was only about 4 years ago, 2004 or so, and a high school has only one track of math for all students. That right there is absolutely shocking.

Aaron