PK> Well that is a great attitude for a teacher if you are one.  How
 PK> about trying and making the kids do their work on a daily basis.
 PK> Give them homowork daily, so the parents know that if their child
 PK> has 5 major subjects they can expect 5 homeworks.  No excuses at
 PK> all.  What about instead of sending out cards that a kid has
 PK> missed a day or two, make phone calls to the parents at home or
 PK> at work to make sure that they get the message.
 PK> When you start doing this, you will see the BIG improvement in
 PK> all of our kids.
LP>After the last 6 weeks I've spent, all I can do is to apologize to you,
LP>my students & their parents for not being omnipotent, omniscient &
LP>omnipresent.....
LP>Being as lazy as I am & having been up grading papers 4« hours the night
LP>before, you can imagine that I was a little cranky......
LP>From reading your message, I now realize that that dad is not alone in
LP>his blinkered delusion of just how much supervision I can exercise over
LP>150 little people whom I see for just 50 minutes a day.  I can't believe
LP>that you honestly believe that teachers have that much time in a day.
Since it DOES appear that Leona is a bit "stressed" at the 
moment , please allow me to paraphrase what she said...
Most teachers in elementary school have virtually zero time
available during the school day to do anything beyond what
they already do; this despite having to handle "only" a 
group of 20+ students...  Add to that the time required to
plan and correct AFTER hours, and there really is little
opportunity for this type of personal contact on an ongoing
basis...
At the secondary level; ie, middle and high schools, a
teacher has SOME time during the day, but this is often tied
up with students also (extra help, makeups, etc)..  They, 
too, must do a lot of the work after hours, and they usually
have in excess of 120 students to handle each day.  The
logistics of what you suggest, while seeming reasonable to
you, are really NOT reasonable when one considers the reality
of the situation..
The best we can usually do is to keep on top of a couple of
kids over a short period of time, and let ALL parents know
periodically how things are going with warning notices, five
week notices, report cards, etc...
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