Thursday 5 October is international Teachers’ Day. Today teachers here in Flanders and in countries across the globe will be honoured for the important work they do in educating our children. To mark International Teachers’ Day VRT Radio 2 asked four teachers what they would like to say to parents and grandparents in our region.
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What do teachers want to tell parents on International Teachers' Day?
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Catherine Uytebroeck teaches technology. She and her colleagues all agree that they would like parents to be more patient.
“We sometimes receive emails from parents that expect an answer straight away, even in the evening. Also with regard to the help we give to their children, parents want us to be available straight away, but they forget that we sometimes have to help hundreds of pupils”.
“We often receive comments about the content of the course. Then parents send a mail asking why their child has only learned a particular piece. But that is how learning works: we present the course piece by piece so that it remains manageable. We studied for this and we are also concerned about what is in the interest of the child. That is our priority”.
Religious education teacher Daisy De Meyer agrees “Parents sometimes forget that we, both them as parent as we as teachers have the same goal and that is helping their child progress in life. And yes, then sometimes things are said that aren’t very nice. That isn’t done to put the child down, on the contrary. But some parents immediately think that we are picking on their child”.
Nele Rottiers is the Head of a school. She calls on parents to reflect about how they talk about school at home. Ms Rottiers says that children pick up on it if you talk about school in a positive and confident way and that this promotes learning.
Another teacher called Charlotte says “Please don’t be too perfectionist” to parents. “Until recently parents could see their children’s results straight away in our school app. Even before they knew their results themselves children were getting reprimanded at home. Fortunately we have modified this. Now parents can only see the results after a week. We have done this to protect children from their parents’ perfectionist tendencies”.
Daisy De Meyer agrees: “I too have the impression that parents today find it more difficult to admit that their children have scored badly in a test or have done something wrong”.