Educators, Author Offer Suggestions

Your daughter is so distraught about school that she sobs every morning. Six parent-teacher conferences notwithstanding, long division still befuddles your son--months after the instructor covered the topic in class.

So, what can you do if you suspect your child has a bad teacher?

First, set up an appointment to talk to the teacher, experts say. Outline in nonthreatening language the difficulties your child is having and work with the teacher to craft a solution to your child’s problems.

If that approach fails, and you believe your child is continuing to fall behind or suffer mistreatment, meet with the principal and see if your child can switch classrooms.

“As a parent, you need to be sure your son or daughter has their needs taken care of. The student has to be No. 1,” said Lane Jackson, an assistant principal at Balboa Middle School in Ventura. “Say Janelle is having a hard time in this class but might do better in another class, you might be able to make a change for Janelle because it’s in the child’s best interests. You can move kids around.”

Guy Strickland, author of “Bad Teachers: The Essential Guide for Concerned Parents,” suggests that, when talking to principals, parents stress how another teacher might be a better match for their children as opposed to criticizing the current teacher. “I’ve heard Miss Smith uses more hands-on activities; my child responds well to those,” is probably a more successful appeal than “Mr. Jones doesn’t know how to teach reading. Get my daughter out of there.”

“You can’t go in there saying, ‘That’s a bad teacher,’ ” Strickland said. “You say it’s not a good match between my child and this teacher, because the principal can’t acknowledge one of his teachers is bad. If he moved your kid because a teacher was bad, he’d have to move all 20 or 30 kids out and another 20 or 30 back in.”

Switching classrooms can be tricky in schools that are at full capacity. It’s even more difficult in schools participating in the state’s class-size reduction program, which limits classes to 20 students in primary grades.

A sympathetic school trustee or superintendent can sometimes help arrange a needed switch.

Another option is switching schools--feasible if other schools aren’t full and if they are close to a parent’s work or child-care provider. But this option involves separating a child from friends.

If a child is missing class work or failing to grasp some of the content, parents can supplement classwork with after-school study or hire a tutor to help.

A more significant problem--a child feeling hurt or humiliated by a teacher--may be addressed with more drastic measures. Some parents opt for private school or home schooling, said Strickland, who worked for decades as a private school teacher and principal in the Los Angeles area.

“The idea that it’s not a big deal is ridiculous,” he said. “Having a bad teacher every day is a very big deal, if you’re the kid. If you’re 7 and spend the whole year with a bad teacher, that’s a huge percentage of your life. It’s an enormous injustice to a helpless little kid.”

Some parents suggest that the easiest way to deal with a bad teacher is to avoid getting one in the first place.

“The reality at the school site is that parents who volunteer generally get the better teachers,” said Simi Valley parent activist Nan Mostacciuolo.

As children get older and switch teachers more frequently, some parents view the occasional burned-out teacher as a chance for their children to learn how to work with difficult people.

“I think good teachers, you can’t put a dollar value on them,” said father Wayne Johnson, president-elect of the California Teachers Assn. “I think the weak teachers out there, most kids can overcome their shortcomings--I know every teacher I had wasn’t Socrates.”