What to do if your child is having a problem with a teacher

If your child is complaining about having a bad teacher, there could be a couple of different things most likely happening. First, it could be a personality clash. The child may be shy and the teacher may be loud, for example. The other issue may be one of competence. In this case, your child would not be qualified to make that determination. Here are three things you can do to help:

1.Get your facts straight: Ask your child what's wrong. If they say the teacher is mean, ask them in what way. Listen and narrow down the problem. If you're still not certain, talk to other parents of kids in the class.

2.Don't be confrontational: Assume you're all on the same team, trying to do the best for the student. Visit the teacher. (If you're furious, take someone with you to calm you down). You might say, "What can we do about this?" Give the teacher a chance to explain or defend or offer solutions. If the teacher is unresponsive or unhelpful, go to the next step.

3.Enlist the school's help: Don't go as a "whiny" parent, but as someone concerned for their child's education. Be straightforward and see what they can do to help. When it comes down to it, whether or not you should take your child out of a teacher's class is your personal judgment based on your child, the things the teacher is doing that you think might be damaging to the child, and balancing the need for children to know that not everyone will be nice all the time with the need to have your child in an environment in which they can learn.

(Summarized from an article by Josh Lerman, senior editor, Parenting Magazine, 10/05)