Sometimes you just need to say, "Stop!"

There are times when you are in the middle of something and you just need to say, "stop!" This morning it was after taking my first swig of Natural Green Tea Mouthwash.

STOP.

Yesterday it was listening to a student's mother berate the teacher for not giving her son an A. STOP!

As a principal of an international school, much of my daily work involves communication with parents, and in those communications I make every effort to be polite, accommodating, and conciliatory. Parents pay significant amounts of money to send their children to the school and, rightly so, expect good things. In fact, they expect the best - which they should - just as I endeavor to work with the faculty and staff of the school to provide the best.

It is right for them to expect we hire the best teachers. It is right for them to expect the school is sufficiently resourced. It is right for them to expect we are leading their children through a viable, transferrable curriculum. It is right for them to expect that their children will grow, develop and learn. But there are some expectations that are NOT right.

It is NOT right for them to expect that because they pay expensive tuition they can demand grades.

Yesterday, during a parent-teacher conference, Sam expressed to his mother and his teacher how proud he was of his B+. How he was proud of the work he had devoted to this subject, the extra support he had received from his teacher, and the improvement he had seen since his last report card. With his mother listening, his teacher agreed. His teacher commended him for his hard work, commented on his initiative to seek extra support, and indicated that future growth was certain with the same excellent work habits and dedication to his learning.

The mother, when the time came for her to respond, turned to her son and disbelievingly asked him if he was satisfied with 85%. He nodded and said yes.

"85% is not good enough!", came her response. And then to the teacher, "You should give him an A! He is working hard. He deserves it."

Sometimes you just need to say STOP!

And in another classroom down the hall, a parent of an elementary student was remonstrating with the teacher that there were not enough 4's (on a 1-4 scale) for his daughter. "She deserves 4's!" was the main thrust of his argument.

Sometimes you just need to say STOP!

There comes a point when we as teachers need to say, "STOP", both for their own good and for the good of their children.