One of the things that makes my school special is that amount of personal contact and communication we teachers, give to the parents. We call when their kid's grade drops to a 75. Homeroom teachers call their homeroom parents every week. Each semester we do two progress reports with individual comments for each student.
I've never minded talking to the parents and students directly about progress, but comments used to be my number one most hated responsibility. I still find them challenging. The problem is that I know how important the comments are. They are one of the few times that the parents know that we are communicating and evaluating progress, or lack of progress, towards goals. It's a lot of pressure to find the right words and I hate delivering anything remotely like bad news.
Some years I contemplate writing spoof comments. The potential for something going wrong is too high. Still, the hardest comments are the ones where I feel like I really have something to say. Because of what they are, everything has to be phrased in teacher P.C. babble.
So I can't just say "Susy, pull your cranium out of your rectum and do your homework if you want to succeed."
The comments end up more like: "Susy, while the scope of material covered in the second semester increased, the expectation that you complete the assignments at home has not changed. If you wish to maintain your customary B, you must do your homework on time and with a reasonable amount of detail."
The second is way more professional, but the first feels more personally satisfying.
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