Resources for Dealing with Difficult Parents & Students

Posted by teacher on August 26, 2011

Angry parents are in touch with emotions but may have temporarily lost focus on children’s behavior or grades. Learning to defuse situations by acknowledging their frustrations but keeping the focus on facts rather than personalities is a valuable skill for teachers and school administrative staff. Here are three guidelines to quickly defuse anger and allow all parties to respond rather than react.

1. Use time outs to allow emotions to dissipate. Acknowledge concern, but ask for the opportunity to research the situation and get the facts. Set a time for a conference to show the parent good faith about intentions to resolve the conflict.

2. Ask parents to put the concerns into writing. This focuses them on facts rather than emotions, and makes them accountable to do fact finding with their children. Teachers or other staff members with involvement should also prepare a written version. Finally, do your homework and find out who the players are, what event or events triggered the conflict, where and why it happened, and what the expected resolution should include.

3.At conference time, use a recording device or have a secretary take notes and prepare a written transcript of what occurred. Memories can be faulty and the heat of anger can cause distortions, so taking this precautionary step may save further disputes or conflicts.