Missing Teacher Meetings
Fined and Charged With a Crime
By Daniel Muniz

In an effort to get more parents involved in the education of their children, certain state legislatures have toyed around with the idea of actually charging people with a crime and fining them for missing parent-teacher conferences. One novel approach was a bill filed in the Texas legislature in which missing these scheduled meetings without notice would result in being charged with a misdemeanor as well as being slapped with a $500 fine.

The way that this proposed law would work is that a parent would receive by certified mail a notice of a conference with three proposed dates to meet with their child’s teacher although arrangements can still be made about the best suitable time. If parents fail to respond to the notices or just don’t show up after setting up a meeting time, they can be charged and fined unless they have a reasonable extenuating circumstance.

Of course this bill didn’t get anywhere especially with concern about who and how it would be enforced.
 

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Other states have considered similar measures before but the real issue is about what to do with parents who are unconcerned or unwilling to assist in the academic performance or with the disciplinary problems of their children. So what kind of obligation does the state have in making all of that happen?

In circumstances like this, it is frustrating for teachers because they know that corrective action in the very beginning can help prevent a situation from escalating if it is identified early on. That is why parent-teacher conferences can be vital in opening up dialogue with parents and exploring possible solutions. However, if parents are not willing to cooperate by showing up to these meetings, then there is nothing that can be done to remedy the situation. As a result, the problem continues to get worse until it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

Unfortunately, teachers are often caught in the middle.

And to add insult to injury, there are just too many spineless administrators who will hold them accountable for things that are beyond their control.

An educator can only do so much when it comes to classroom instruction because it is very much a two way street. A student still has to fulfill his or her obligation to do their coursework and turn it in and to study for exams. And that is where parents can play a pivotal role in ensuring that their children are responsible for completing their assignments and getting prepared for tests. The same goes for disciplinarian issues in that the parent can intervene and work with the teacher to find ways to resolve any outstanding issues.

Sadly, a teacher can be reprimanded by their principals if there are too many students who are reckless with their schoolwork or who cause too many disciplinary problems. Consequently, a parent-teacher conference represents an opportunity to correct the conflicts that may arise. But if a parent doesn’t show up to these meetings or doesn’t really care, then the intervention doesn’t happen and nothing gets resolved.

Undoubtedly, such legislation has good intentions but many educators are weary of using such a heavy handed approach on parents, especially by turning them into criminals and making them pay steep fines.

Just like the poor, we as a society are always going to have lousy parents. Punishing them in this fashion is not going to turn bad parents into good ones. In fact, a lot of teachers are worried that it may very well have the opposite effect in which these kinds of people will end up either resenting our education system or fearing it instead of just being oblivious to it. And that is something that educators should not be caught in the middle of because they already have a full plate when it comes to teaching in the classroom.

But more to the point, there is only so much that government can do about lousy parents.

Some states have already pushed the envelope in assuming more parental duties such as combating obesity, identifying who has bad teeth, etc. As a result, there are more people who are starting to have the unrealistic expectation that the government is there to solve all of their children’s problems.

And that is precisely the danger of becoming a nanny state in which our government begins to assume all of the responsibilities of our personal lives (are we exercising enough, avoiding food with trans-fat, etc).

There is no doubt that parents must be held accountable for their offspring and that more parental involvement is essential in having a child succeed in school. But there are also some problems that will probably never be resolved and it just may be that lousy parents happen to be one of them.

And since there is only so much that can be done, society in general and our education system in particular has to accept that harsh reality. There are just some things that cannot be fixed because some parents just don’t care.

Yes, it is tragic because it is the children of these lousy parents who have to suffer. In order to have a truly meaningful impact, the state has to take a more comprehensive approach instead of a punitive one such as proposals like this.

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