Parents’ Evening went badly. What next?

 

You sit there at the annual Parents’ Evening, all smiles, waiting for your child’s teacher to agree that your child is the most wonderful creature ever to grace this Earth. But wait. He/she doesn’t agree?!

 

It happened to us. Five minutes allowed in the interview, and rather than focus on all the lovely things we know are true about our gorgeous, funny, caring, talented little girl…

 

 

“She’s struggling with her reading comprehension…”

 

!!!STRUGGLING!!!

 

I didn’t hear much else, just that one word. Sleep didn’t come easy that night. Perspective takes a holiday.

 

You blame the teacher. You blame the shortness of the interview. You blame the fact our daughter was an induced baby.

 

Emotion, you see, clouds the clearest, coolest of minds. There is no stronger attachment than that between a parent and his/her child, resulting in the strongest of emotions.

 

Did we tell our daughter how proud we were? How much we valued her hard work over the past months? No. We focused on that one area of weakness, making her cry in the process. It was absolutely the wrong thing to do, but one we felt compelled to do nevertheless.

 

As a young practising teacher, one without kids of his own, I very often failed to grasp or appreciate this fact.

It’s impossible to totally empathise with a parent – until you become one.

 

What was the solution we chose? A private tutor? I am one. And I employ many.

 

Teach her myself? Fraught with the same emotional barriers that resulted in the over-reaction.

 

Once the heart had been over-ruled once again by the rationality of the brain, it was pretty clear to see that this was one area our daughter needed help with, not a whole subject. The overall feedback from the interview had in fact been worthy of a proud response.

 

So we decided that I should teach her how to approach reading comprehension, and scheduled in a half hour slot on several days a week in order to do this.

 

Being a clever girl (heart speaking again!) she picked it up pretty quickly and it’s a problem no more.

 

 

How does this relate to others’ experiences?

 

If you find yourself in a similar position, where a parents' evening went badly, you too will have to make a decision – hopefully, you’ll recognize that the immediate aftermath of the interview is not the time to make it!

Do you go for a private tutor? Or are you confident enough in your own abilities to teach your child yourself?

Either way, we can help.

 

If you are fortunate enough to live in Ash Tutors’ service area (Wigan, Warrington, St.Helens), you can contact us to hire one of our tutors. Or, you can simply take advantage of our FREE STUFF – which can be accessed from ANYWHERE in the world:

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