Parent Teacher Interview On the Defensive

Mr. Robb was in his second year of teaching. He felt confident about parent-teacher night. He had ample data on his students to support the grades they were earning. He was assigned his own portable as the location for parents of his students to meet him. Mr. Drumble, Mike’s father,walked in and smiled. Mr. Robb shook his hand and invited him to sit down, then proceeded to explain his son’s current grade and the highs and lows of his performance thus far. After a minute or so Mr. Drumble interrupted Mr. Robb’s explanations with “Mike hasn’t had a mark this low before. Your way of evaluating doesn’t seem fair”. Mr. Robb was taken aback. He had the results right in front of him. He had explained the results and now he is accused of being unfair! He retorted “I don’t know how you think my grading is unfair. Ask anyone who works here and they’ll tell you I take my job very seriously.” Mr. Drumble went on: “ Are you sure you can’t adjust your weightings so that the marks are more in line with past performances?” Mr. Robb replied “I can’t change what’s been submitted for reporting, but if Mike is not happy with his grade, he can talk to me about doing some extra work to pull his average up.” Mr. Drumble left unsatisfied and Mr. Robb felt like all the hard work he’d been doing was not appreciated.