College Misery published this hilarious and scary letter:
This parent is worried. The Student has one of those Unfortunate schedules and one of those Intractable (but hot, according to RMP) fascists, I mean teachers who is making that Thanksgiving getaway darned near impossible. The only way for the Student to get out of Uni town is Greyhound… the Student will arrive at the Crossroads of America (NY Port Authority) at Midnight, because hot teacher INSISTS ALL Students attend afternoon class or be penalized grade wise. The Student is worried…. The Parent ? The Parent is mighty pissed.
So, can you good folks send me to a place where I can vent ? Where what I have to say may actually make a difference? Because I know that the Student is going to be miserable for the short time the Student is home. And so, really, the Parent wonders if having a day of Thanks is really appropriate, when the Student will still be recovering from the trip home and will be resentful in that surly vacant way that students are these days… The Parent is even beginning to wonder about the wisdom of letting the Student attend an Out of State Instituion. Maybe the Parent should have said… “No Way..” Our State or No State… One would think State Schools would be Overjoyed to have Out of State Students and that they would care if these $$$$$ machines are happy…
Maybe the Professors would like to ponder this. Do you ever think about the folks who essentially pay your salaries? Do you have any feelings for your “employers” and their offspring (besides contempt ?) I mean, do you like being a College Professor ? (I admit it, I read just some of the blog…) Can you honestly tell me that we are getting our money’s worth, or do you teach to support your_______________ habit ?
Just curious…
Here’s hoping you get that well deserved rest you need over the Thanksgiving break…
The Not Happy Parent…
I’m too tired to respond to this unhinged rant from a person who believes that teachers who follow the terms of their contracts and teach when the university requires them to teach are fascists. There are really great responses to this weirdo on the College Misery site. All I can say is that it would be a lot easier for me to get the students to understand why a baseball game or nice weather don’t mean it’s OK to miss a class if the noise from helicopter blades were a little less deafening.
Dear Mommies and Daddies! If you think that the best way to instill the values of responsibility and maturity in your adult children is to tell them that a teacher who expects them to work on a work day is a fascist, I can only wish you the best of luck with trying to get your off-spring to move out of your house by the time your precious baby turns 45.
Clarissa's Blog 
My classmates who moan about having school near (not on) holidays or worse still during hurricane sandy (Ithaca had mild rain showers) drive me crazy. Why do you go here if every opportunity to ditch school fills you with glee? I’m all for taking breaks, but take the appropriate break and don’t slack all week because we have Monday off!
And yes, parents, students have their own lives now and school is an important responsibility and if they can’t get all week off, or god forbid, enough time off to go home for thanksgiving at all, then too damn bad!
Amusing how the parent blames their child’s bad attitude on the professor. With a parent like that, I would be sulky in their presence too!
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I thought an adult person like the letter’s author claims to be would know that profs cannot just cancel classes because they feel like it. It’s just like any other job: you have to show up or you will soon find yourself unemployed. I have had to miss many family occasions because I had to work and, well, that’s life. And on Thanksgiving Day, I worked grading final essays from 9:30 am to 8 pm. Boo hoo.
College is supposed to prepare students for being in a workplace and this is what being in a workplace often entails.
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As I age, I get some solace in the thought that one day these kids will have their own kids.
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This particular parent is so low class and clearly uneducated that s/he has other issues besides being a helicopter parent. I find it so disgusting when parents get into the whole idiocracy of ‘paying’ the teachers’ / professors’ salaries.
It is sad though to see parents looking for someone on whom to blame their failed parenting. A son/daughter that will be miserable throughout their time at home because they love home so much that they wanted to spend a few more hours there? This makes no sense.
Ironically, had my daughter’s teacher told me that we cannot pull my daughter out of class on a certain day because they have a specific project or an activity, I would have happily complied. And, umm, my daughter is 3 and she’s in daycare.
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“It is sad though to see parents looking for someone on whom to blame their failed parenting. A son/daughter that will be miserable throughout their time at home because they love home so much that they wanted to spend a few more hours there? This makes no sense.”
– Exactly! She oozes contempt for both the teacher and the kid. The self-involvement is staggering. And the poor writing skills are appalling.
“Ironically, had my daughter’s teacher told me that we cannot pull my daughter out of class on a certain day because they have a specific project or an activity, I would have happily complied. And, umm, my daughter is 3 and she’s in daycare.”
– 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately, it seems like you must be in a minority. This just goes to show what makes a teacher’s work so hard.
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Just for fun, I read this to my 9th grade advisory class this morning. (In fairness, it was a good lead in to our scheduled talk on time management and priorities.) Some of their responses:
“It’s not the teacher’s fault that the university didn’t cancel class the day before Thanksgiving.”
“Why didn’t they think about this — that travel for short breaks would be harder — before they went out of state?”
“You know, the teacher didn’t say they had to be there. The kid could have missed class and taken the grade deduction. It’s a choice.”
“Why didn’t the parents come to see their kid for Thanksgiving, if it was so important to them?”
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These are really cool kids. 🙂 I often discover that students are more reasonable than their helicoptering parents.
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