Parents always believe that they know what’s best for their kids. Teachers have a huge impact on a student’s attitude toward school, so parents want to ensure that their child has the best and most effective education possible. So, should parents get to choose who their child’s teacher is?
Pros to Parents Choosing Their Kid’s Teacher
Every child learns in different ways or at different paces, so this is a common reason that parents want to select a specific teacher. Over time, parents learn how their child works and learns best, so they take what they hear about certain teachers and use it to decide which one is best for their particular child.
However, these personal decisions are often more for the parents than they are for the kids. Parents like their kids to have a teacher that is easily accessible, so they can stay up to date with their child’s progress in school. Parents feel safer knowing that their kid is with a teacher that can give them the ideal education and learning style. They just want their kids to be happy and successful in school, so choosing a teacher themselves can often guarantee those requests better.
Cons to Parents Choosing Their Kid’s Teacher
Even though it can be beneficial for parents to find out information about the teachers at school ahead of time, it can also be problematic. Parents could hear about one bad experience and then get overprotective about trying to keep their kids away from that teacher, even if that bad experience was just a misunderstanding. Parents will often let their own fears and worries get the best of them when deciding a teacher for their kids, which can actually get in the way of their child’s experience at school.
Also, when parents choose their child’s teacher, it takes a bit of independence away from that kid. School should be helping kids prepare for the real world, but if parents are constantly making important decisions, such as which teachers their kids can and can’t have, then that’s not teaching kids to be independent at all, but instead, it is teaching them to rely too heavily on their parents. However, independence is a key skill that children need to learn at an early age.
Special Circumstances
Sometimes there are special circumstances that better justify parents selecting a teacher for their children. First of all, if this request is made discreetly, then it is much better for everyone involved since then it won’t affect the teacher or student as much. However, even so, this isn’t really something that should be done often.
If a child has special needs, then it is more understandable for parents to want to find a teacher that will work best with the student, but even so, choosing a teacher isn’t a requirement in this situation either.
Conclusion
Instead of trying hard to find the teacher that best fits each student, schools should work hard to ensure that all teachers are equally qualified and can teach any student. This will help to keep the numbers of students in each classroom even, and it will help put parents more at ease.
