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I want to begin by tempering my answering by saying that I quite literally saw red when I read that alphabetizing is not important because we do not use dictionaries, we just use the internet. As a Library Media Specialist, one of the greatest weaknesses I see day in and day out is that students have no idea how to alphabetize. They are literally unable to ...

I definitely agree that research is needed. First, speak to the teacher. Talk to her about her teaching style, but at this point in the year it is a bit late, so maybe speak to her about why SHE thinks your child does not like school. The answer should be very telling. Second, speak to other parents. Don't accuse the teacher, just talk about whether ...

During parent-teacher conferences, the teacher has only 20 minutes to go through everything the school requires them to cover (grades, milestones, whatever) and there's usually little or no time left for meaningful communication. One can only stretch the time so much before destroying the schedule (which parents make the effort to arrive for), so the ...

It sounds like your concern is about a teacher mixing opinion with the teaching material. If the teacher is presenting an opinion you disagree with, then you can raise the issue with them directly. I would suggest starting off by saying whether or not your agree with their opinion is not the issue, but rather that you are concerned that the opinion ...

As DA01 mentioned above, public education will generally not please every parent, 100% of the time. If your concern is about teaching material you think is incorrect, then the advice present in this question will likely be applicable to some extent. However, in this case, you seem to be objecting to just how important a particular skill is to learn. In ...

Teach your children to think critically about what they are taught This way it will matter less what they are taught at school. You can present your view at home, and they can make a logical decision on which they accept. Of course this has the downside (if you consider it a downside, I personally do not) that your child will also begin to question what you ...

Hmmm, tough one. It is difficult to arrive to any well founded conclusions without a lot more research and evidence. And I must note for start, that it is possible to keep control of 20 or even more children without any bad methods. It takes a lot of energy, a lot of experience, and time, however. And it is not always strict. A good teacher knows when to ...

Here's one blog where a parent discusses his child's dissatisfaction with a teacher's approach to science lessons, and how he (the parent) dealt with that. http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=4504 (I got that link from this answer: How do you handle a teacher that teaches pseudo science? ) It's not a great fit, because the teacher was in the wrong ...

If you truly want to know what is going on in the classroom for any grade, you have to be there, and not just once or twice. Volunteer to help with something like preparing materials or even reading to the children. Be sure not to interfere and don't go just to spy. It is very eye-opening to see the children as the teacher sees them and sometimes as the ...

Getting the "right" teacher has be important. I remember reading a study (NYTimes but couldn't find it to cite) showing that a poor teacher will cover 6 months of work in a year but a great teacher will cover 18 month's work. Generally, we will ask around the school to get an idea of who the good teachers are. Our experience has been: A teachers bad ...

At the age of 3, I would have thought the things of most interest would be: The child's social skills. At 3yo, many children still do side-by-side rather than interactive playing The child's verbal skills. Are they clearly understandable? the child's emotional maturity. How do they handle the day once they've been dropped off. How do they handle conflict ...

I am not sure this is so much an answer as insight. I am a teacher and a librarian. I have taught every level in every socioeconomic category. I have found time and again that the child's interaction absolutely reflects the parent's interaction with teachers. This is actually a major topic of discussion among the teaching profession. In the past 11 years I ...

This varies from county to county within states, and even from school to school within school districts. One of the most successful schools in the state I used to teach in purposely tracked kids once they left kindergarten and grouped them according to their academic performance. Children who needed extra help, while they were moved forward, were placed in ...

The teacher and the school have the authority to select teaching styles. Parents should be able to propose a different style. The proposed style may be for one specific student or for the class. Depending on the relationship between the parent and the teacher, the approach may be formal or informal. Please remember that the relationship with the teachers ...

Part 1: Teachers are like second parents Like it or not, a teacher is like a second parent. You'll find children coming home with new expressions, and peculiar ways of phrasing things. For example, one teacher would identify "parents" as "mommy-daddy", (spoken just like that, without an "and" in the middle.) The teacher is just teaching the way she knows ...

I'm a little surprised that I don't see more votes for the answer of setting a meeting and politely ASKING the teacher about her reasons. I would make this as a comment, except I have more to say than will fit and would argue MORE points to back up Ali Habbek's point. As a teacher and parent I understand the value of maintaining a good relationship ...

A lot of teaching seems to be "one size fits all." The techniques that work in general may not necessarily work well with your child, but I dare say there is some logic behind it. My daughter is just finishing year 4 and her spelling word homework includes things like "which word contains another word that means home." These are particularly annoying and ...

This is a very important and critical topic. It questions the education philosophy. The topic is about the definition of a "teacher". Is the teacher a facilitator helping the students read a book? Or the teacher is an educated thinker providing students with deeper understanding of the world? How much freedom should a teacher has to convey knowledge to the ...

HedgeMage's answer is a good place to start with any teacher relationship, but the other thing is to know exactly what your objective is before going in. If you just want something a little more specific about your kid, this might not be the time to get it. If you suspect there is something more to know that you are not getting told, you might ask ...

Communication. Plan and simple, teach your kids to communicate with their teachers about issues and questions they have, rather than wait and let things escalate. If they can't raise questions or concerns about school work then they might fail for simple reasons, or they might fail for doing the wrong thing. Other than that, they can manage to have a ...

Seriously, read the book Counseling The Culturally Diverse (it blatantly puts out there the mass racial and socio-economical discrimination that still occurs today in very subtle and slick ways). Teachers, counselors, ect. seem to try to act like the problem is in the child, when that's not always the case, and finally, its documented! Amen! The book is ...

There's a whole spectrum of solutions here, depending on how subjective the point in question is and what your personal opinion of the matter is. First get the facts, if there are any. Assuming the matter is important enough (and rare enough), get the teacher's version too. Listen to your own gut feeling regarding who's (more) right. Now consider what ...