A Teacher Shares Emotional Message for All Parents Who Blame Teachers for Poor Education

Despite the widely recognized value of education, teachers, often overworked, face burnout. Many start with passion but leave disillusioned. A retired teacher decided to share an open letter where she addressed this issue and named parents as the main issue, and it’s gone viral.

The teacher didn’t hold her emotions while sending the public message.

The letter of Lisa Roberson was posted both online and cited in the local newspaper:

“As a retired teacher, I am sick of people who know nothing about public schools or have not been in a classroom recently deciding how to fix our education system.

The teachers are not the problem! Parents are the problem! They are not teaching their children manners, respect or even a general knowledge of how to get along with others. The children come to school in shoes that cost more than the teacher’s entire outfit, but have no pencil or paper. Who provides them? The teachers often provide them out of their own pockets.”

“When you look at schools that are ‘failing,’ look at the parents and students. Do parents come to parent nights? Do they talk with the teachers regularly? Do they make sure their children are prepared by having the necessary supplies? Do they make sure their children do their homework?

Do they have working telephone numbers? Do the students take notes in class? Do they do their homework? Do the students listen in class, or are they the sources of class disruptions?

When you look at these factors, you will see that it is not schools that are failing but the parents. Teachers cannot do their jobs and the parents’ job. Until parents step up and do their job, nothing is going to get better!”

Many parents and users supported the teacher.

Many people on Facebook came to leave their comments to defend the author:

• Glad I’m not that parent. I email my kids’ teachers every two weeks and I will pop up just to see what they are doing. I check my daughter’s grades every day and if I see something I don’t like, I email the teacher.
• Parents stop buying those expensive clothes and sneakers. Buy the pencils, pens, etc. Those clothes aren’t going to make them smart.
• Clearly, this is not speaking to all parents. Just as all children are not in this situation and all teachers aren’t poor teachers. But as a caring teacher who loves my students, I can attest to the grave truth of this post for a great deal of the students/parents I’ve worked with during my career. This is my reality. If it is not your reality, then that’s great. But for many of us, it is, unfortunately.
• Maybe a different title to this article could be “Parents Could Be a Solution”. Many don’t realize teachers can’t teach until children have basic social skills & parents who support the huge responsibility of those in charge of a classroom.

Some, however, think the teacher is not entirely right.

The post with the letter got around 2,800 comments on the social network. And along with supportive comments, there were also users who disagreed with the teacher to some extent:

• That’s nice in theory, but did you ever consider that perhaps the parents who don’t come to parents’ night are working three jobs to keep food on the table? Or that perhaps the kid not taking notes didn’t eat breakfast and is having a hard time focusing? Don’t get me wrong, bad parents are raising the same little kids, but blaming the parents is a cop-out. There are larger factors at play as well.
• This is 50/50 because a lot of things do start from home. But I have seen some teachers totally disrespect students because they are tired or stressed out, I have even seen teachers put students down as well and yes I am speaking from the younger generation with a child!
• As a teacher, I completely disagree with this. If you want parents involved you have to create a safe space for them and this is doing the exact opposite of that. Think about it, if someone criticized you for the way you were doing things, you would most likely become defensive.
  A lot of the families have had bad experiences in school and therefore do not feel comfortable stepping foot inside another one. Try to work with them, try different ideas. Just because they don’t do it your way, does not make it wrong. Try listening to them and their struggles, build a relationship with them, respect them and I bet you will get a lot more out of them and their children.

What do you think about this? Do you agree with the teacher?

Recently, another teacher became extremely upset when her workload doubled because some parents expected her to change their 6-year-old son’s diaper. This frustration led her to make a fiery statement directed at busy moms, sparking strong reactions from many people.