Idiotsville

So, today was probably the weirdest day on record for me in the world of education. It began with a Tornado Warning that put all of us in the "Shelter" area at school for about 45 minutes. In the end, nothing happened in my little corner of the world, and we all went back to class. Life went on.

But, in the world of "weirdness," today I have a story that needs to be shared.

One of the MANY things that they didn't teach me in college was how to deal with idiotic parents. Now mind you, I'm not referring to my own. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know that I lived in the IDEAL world as a kid. It's not my parents that I am frustrated with. It's the parents of my students.

I had two IEP meetings slated for this morning. I had the paperwork ready to go (I did it over Spring Break!) and was ready to meet with the parents. One of the meetings was already re-scheduled due to them just not showing up last week for the first attempt at a meeting. The second meeting, I really expected the parent to show.

And of course, neither one did. This is a continual frustration to me as an educator. It is a continual thing for me to have parents skip meetings. And, the even more frustrating part is the phone call that has to be made after the meeting has been skipped.

Today was a call I will never forget. Here's what happened:

Me: Hi, yes, is this the home of joeshmoe's parents?
Parent: yes, who is this?
Me: Well, I'm your child's Special Education Teacher, Ms. Shortone, and we had a meeting scheduled for today that you didn't attend.
Parent: Well, I hurt my foot.
Me: Well, we need to reschedule the meeting so I can keep teaching Joeshmoe.
Parent: Well, see, I hurt my foot...
Me: Well, how about we meet one week from today at 9:30?
Parent: (in a high-pitched, whiney tone) I HURT MY FOOT REALLY REALLY BADLY.
Me: So will Monday at 9:30 work for you?
Parent: No, I have a doctor's appointment about my foot.
Me: Okay, so how about this Thursday at 9:30?
Parent: Well, my husband will need to come because I have to work that day.
Me: Okay, great, I'll send a reminder notice out to you. Thanks.
Parent: Uh, huh.
Me: Bye, have a great day.
Parent: okay.

Now, that really was the conversation. When the parent kicked into her whiney tone I thought, "You would probably be in my class if you were your child's age, wouldn't you?"

My other thought was the fact that a hurt foot shouldn't keep you from your child's educational program. A hurt foot doesn't affect your hand to sign papers. It doesn't affect your ability to pick up a phone and say, "Sorry, I can't make it today, can we please re-schedule?"

Welcome to Idiotsville.

I find myself scratching my head a lot lately wondering who the adults are in these homes. And I also wonder how in the world God entrusted children to these people. In the past 3 weeks I've heard of 3 different young ladies who have had kids in their teens and early twenties, and they have no idea what that truly means. What it means to raise a kid right. None.

I had a different parent write me a note today wanting a meeting tomorrow. I already have two others so I called to see if we could move it. I tried three separate numbers and they were all disconnected. Idiots.

I called the other parent to hold them accountable too. He didn't care. He told me to put the papers through and he'd look at them later. Idiot.

I had another parent tell me that they can't come in during school hours, so to send the papers home and he would sign them. Idiot.

It's not as if I require much out of them. They come in for one meeting per year. That's it.

Let's just hope tomorrow I don't have to walk into Idiotsville again.

I'm not sure I could handle another phone call like today so soon.

Stay tuned for more "Idiotsville" Drama.

It's only March 31, there's still a lot of school year left this year...

Later!