FirstCry Parenting

The start of a new school year always brings a lot of anticipation. The school curriculum brings your child in contact with a lot of elements, teachers being a crucial one. Student-teacher relationship can be best defined as a love-hate relationship. Let’s keep in mind that any child spends the better part of a school year with a teacher for at least 5-6 hours a day. It is therefore highly implausible that the going will always be smooth.

The real calamity, however, strikes when your child tilts more toward the hate side of the relationship. Children are moody and naughty, and it can be difficult for teachers to control them. We don’t realise it, but a teacher’s job is hard, and disagreements arise when your child chooses to be boisterous or does something wrong.

Why Your Child Might Dislike His Teacher?

It’s imperative to listen to your child if he has negative feelings towards his teachers. After all, this may easily be a very serious issue, and your otherwise happy child may constantly underperform or feel embarrassed and underappreciated. Your child may even refuse to go to school. If a child is scolded by a teacher, he is bound to get hurt, and he may ask you to change classes or even shift schools.

Usually, the following reasons can pretty much sum up why your child detests a teacher.

• A teacher’s rude disposition may very well be detrimental to your child’s development.
• A nit-picking attitude on the part of the teacher may hurt your child’s feelings at some point.
• Partiality is also a problem. If your child observes that a teacher is biased and not giving due consideration to him, he may easily taint your child’s attitude toward a teacher.
• Underappreciation or undervaluation of your child’s ability will of course not go down too well with your child.

What Should You Do When Your Child Doesn’t Get Along with His Teacher?

Your role as a parent requires you to get involved if things get too out of hand. Nevertheless, doing so with subtlety is something that you should also consider.

1. Take it Seriously

If your child is complaining about his teacher, do not take it lightly. Acknowledge your child’s complain and realise that there is a problem as any negativity may deter your child’s overall development and put a dent in his education.

2. Discuss

Talking things over is something that can go a long way into mending your child’s relationship with his teacher. You may decide to either speak to your child and the teacher individually or even decide to discuss the matter with both of them at one time.

3. Keep Emotions at Bay

It is of utmost importance to not lose your temper while trying to sort such a delicate matter.

4. Double Check Facts

Communicating is crucial as any wrong fact can further sour an already delicate matter. If your child is complaining, listen to him and check with his teacher as well.

5. Teach Him to Adapt

In case you find that the teacher is not responsive, it may do you well to teach your child to adapt and do his best regardless of the challenge this presents.

6. Introduce New Activities

Your child’s strong feelings may arise out of sheer frustration and a lack of opportunity to vent. Enrolling him in sports, art etc. may help to take the edge off.

7. Try Counselling

If your child has strong negative feelings towards a teacher, he may take it out on you or on a fellow student. A round of counselling may not only unearth what is going on but also reveal if your child needs some real help.

8. Offer Support

As a parent, you may sometimes overlook the real problem and blame your child’s behaviour during the entire episode. Kindly refrain from doing so and offer support and listen before ignoring the entire situation.

9. Recreate the Situations

You can collaborate with your child to act and retrace the steps of exactly what happened and why such feelings arose. A bit of role-playing can go a long way into solving a problem.

10. Reach Out to Higher Authorities

The chances are slim that any teacher will brush you aside when such a problem arises. However, if such a problem arises, reach out to the principal or a higher authority is advised.

The key to solving any problem is communication. In such a case, communicating effectively with your kid as well as the teacher should help ease the situation a bit. Acknowledging the problem and discussing alternate ways to solve the same should ideally be acceptable to both your child and the teacher.

Above all, keeping an open and objective mind is advised. Start by getting all the facts about what really transpired, keep your calm and see how best to reach out to the teacher. To promote a healthy image of the teacher and help forge a positive relationship. You may also want to reach out to other parents who may be facing similar challenges.

Also Read: How to Discipline Children