Sociology Chapter 2
Cait Murach
Critical Pedagogy III
Schmidt
Sociology Response 2
Why do teachers often suffer from ‘chronic critique’ from parents, but that is usually not the case with physicians? Are there sociological patterns at play? What might be the roles of SES and Gender issues here?
Teachers often suffer from chronic critique from parents because they are handling children for multiple hours a day, and if a child comes home and tells their parents what they learned at school and a parent doesn’t approve, then issues can arise. Parents have an idea of what they want their kids to be learning, but that does not always correlate with what the curriculum states. The curriculum is not subject to change, so the parents usually have issues with the teacher because they feel as though they can sway the teacher. Physicians are not subject to being swayed. Physicians give a diagnosis, and that is that. Physicians also use scare tactics on parents, and teachers do not.
I also feel as though gender issues could have an affect on critique from parents. Parents, usually assume that men are more capable of teaching subjects like math, science, etc. Women are usually associated with music, art, dance, etc. Having a male music teacher may have parents asking questions about what is going on in the classroom (such as sexual abuse because on the news, parents see men as sexual predators and having them in the classroom can raise suspicions), and what is going on with their studies and tests. Testing is the ultimate form of assessment for both teachers and students. If a student scores poorly on a test, it can make the teacher look as though their teaching of the material was poor. On the other-hand, it would also reflect that the student was not prepared, the student goofed around during the lesson, or that the student may have an issue with testing in their IEP. If a student attains good test scores, the teacher appears to be doing his/her job, and is off the hook, and the students’ confidence is raised.
Ultimately, I feel as though political issues in the media, gender bias, and the curriculum affects a lot of parental views. Something that is also very interesting to me, is that parents of students in poor school districts hardly ever complain about the conditions of the school, or the quality of the teachers. The complaints come from parents in better school districts, with excellent teachers.
