my first blog rant

I expect absolute respect, all the time, from my students. Some parents act like that expectation is unreasonable.

The same is true for coaching. My players are not my students, but they are students at my school. What we expect from them at school is the same I expect from them on the court. And yet somehow some of our 7th and 8th graders get the impression that the second the 3:00 bell rings, those expectations no longer apply. Of course, it doesn't help that many students in our middle school are allowed to get away with disrespect and no worth ethic day after day. It only makes sense that being with me is like running into a brick wall for them, their ingrained habits creating dissonance with my expectations.

What really chaps my hide, if you will, is when parents support their own kids' disrespect, disruptive behaviors, and irrational decisions with excuses. The reason their kid isn't doing well isn't because they don't get their homework done or because they don't study or because they have no parental supervision at home. No no no... I'M the reason, of course. It's because I don't like their kid, it's because I'm too strict, it's because I don't like Latinos, etc. This is real stuff I've heard from the parents of a few really struggling students.

Of course, the great, GREAT majority of parents are as supportive as can be. Those few parents, though... it's not a stretch to figure out why their kids are the way they are.