[email protected]

In a message dated 3/6/2000 6:53:33 PM, [email protected] writes:

<<1...Teachers don't love my kids or have their best interests truly at

heart, how can they when they only have them for 1 year/grade and must

split their time between 20+ kids.>>

You've reminded me of a great discussion I had with my husband recently. We
both read an article (in an old Utne reader) about a teacher who used
unconventional methods (including playful wrestling in the classroom) to
connect with a very troubled kid who was acting up a lot at school. After
awhile, this kid and the teacher developed a relationship that worked and the
kid behaved pretty well for the rest of the year. But on the last day of the
year the kid set his schoolbooks on fire on the bus.

My husband persuaded me that the point of the article was that the teacher
had broken through and created an emotional bond with the kid, BUT the
teacher was going to be gone from the kid's life once the school year ended.
And everyone accepted that severing of the relationship as normal.

I think it's much better for our kids to love and trust us, their parents,
and have us *stay* with them, rather than have these disposable relationships
with teachers. (I realize there are some exceptions where the teacher takes
an ongoing interest in the child, beyond the paid experience.)

Betsy