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How can I have a positive disagreement with my child's teacher?

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How can I have a positive disagreement with my child's teacher?

If you have a concern with your child's teacher, I would ask you to do a self assessment. Number one, assess why do you have those feelings? What are the true concerns? Sometimes parents say, "I want to pull my kid out of the school, I don't really like how these teachers are treating him,” but maybe your real concern is, "I don't feel like my child is learning, he seems not to be focused, he comes back home crying or whatever the case.”  Look for the behaviors that you can see, hear or measure before you go and talk to a teacher. You don't want to be vague or unclear when you talk to them. So first, assess your own feelings about what's going on in the school, is it really my feelings or something going on in the school. Then assess your child's behavior, what exactly can you see or hear or measure that's going on that you can be able to communicate to that teacher.

Then schedule a meeting with the teacher and make sure throughout that meeting you are calm. Collect information from the teacher, have an initial meeting where you just get information. Don’t point a finger, but ask them, "Can you tell me a little bit about my child and what is going on with them?” Make sure you take notes.

Then schedule another time to talk to the teacher again, whether it would be through an email, or that you follow up face-to-face. Then, share your feelings because they might change based on your assessment of yourself, your assessment of your child's behavior and what the teacher has to say. Then you can schedule a real meeting to talk about what's going with your kid.