Teachers do not have easy jobs, and we should be able to admit that by now. Parents know that their kids aren't perfect angels. Can you imagine having 30 of them in one classroom at the same time? Bless these men and women who dedicate their time and often their finances to mold and educate young minds. Even though we know how challenging teaching can be, parents continue to treat teachers poorly.
A former teacher had a viral moment on TikTok — not because of what happened to her in the classroom but because she was defending her daughter's teacher. It is the teacher's first year on the job, and instead of giving the woman a bit of grace, parents have been bashing her behind her back, and Mary "Z" Irvin has had enough.
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This teacher is brand new.
Irvin explains that not only is it her first year teaching, but she is also taking over a classroom mid-year. The children's former teacher decided to leave her job, and now the new teacher is trying to get things sorted out.
It is her classroom, so she wants things to work for her. Some of the former teacher's methods aren't exactly clicking, however, so she is tweaking things. It seems pretty reasonable.
The drama started with an email.
And it wasn't an email from the teacher; instead, it was an email from another parent. Irvin says in her video that another parent from her daughter's second-grade classroom sent out a blast to all the parents asking how their kids were doing.
Irvin, a former teacher, said the issue wasn't with the parent inquiring about other kids, but it was that she knew the conversation would degenerate into a complaint fest.
Irvin had a similar situation when she was a teacher.
She said the entire situation crushed her spirit. She was working hard in the classroom, but the parents continued to complain about her in a string of messages. Instead of just coming to her with their concerns, they talked about her behind her back, which is exactly what she hoped to prevent for her daughter's teacher.
She said she responded to the email asking the parents to give this teacher some grace, reminding them she was brand new and walked into someone else's classroom.
"Let's give her a little credit. And if your child is having a problem adjusting, then there are a couple of things you can do. Communicate with the teacher, go to the counselor at the school, but don't email everybody," she explained in the TikTok.
Parents applauded Irvin for her compassion.
Her comments section had lots of people thanking her for sticking up for the new teacher and suggesting she give a heads up to her principal.
"It sounds like that email needs to be shown to the principal before that particular parent becomes a problem and causes trouble for the teacher," one person commented.
"Principals need to hold parents accountable like they do teachers. Parents have gotten so bad," someone else added.
"Parents not wanting to parent. If your kids have issues with their teacher, talk to the teacher. If that dosen't work talk to the principle," another person wrote.
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So many teachers in the trenches daily appreciated Irvin standing up for them.
Sadly, many teachers have been subjected to this kind of treatment by parents. Some teachers were even named on social media.
"I had a parent name me on Facebook (first year of teaching) and it became a bashing thread. I almost left that year. Parents make the job unbearable," one teacher recalled.
And this one: "I had a mother who posted about me on social media. I PM'd her and told her we weren't in high school and that if she had a question, to please ask me."
Another teacher was mortified at the thought of this email. "I would literally never show my face again if any of my student's parents did that to me I would be so devastated and mortified and heartbroken " the comment treads.
"I had a parent send me a message that was meant for someone else -bashing/complaining about me. The parent had no remorse or apology for me. ," another teacher wrote.
Luckily, teachers have Irvin in their corner.
"There are teachers that are leaving all the time, and we can't afford that. And when you guys do stuff like post things online about teachers or do mass emails about teachers, you are screwing with the teachers that are there," Irvin said.
