Hi all, I am the absolute stereotype of the hard English teacher, and I've been fine with that. I have always had great results in the past, and students come back to thank me later. I've even had a past student who is now a journalist for the NYT. Lately parents have started to complain, however, and one sent an email to our principal that I am "abusive". Any advice would be appreciated.

These days everyone wears the feelings on their sleeves. It’s the wimpy society that has been created. Heaven help us if teens, 20,30, 40’s have to be independent and be leaders because our country is sunk!

I find that when female teachers are strict/stern we are seen as bi+{!!€5. But if a male were to act/say the same thing they may be seen as just tough and applauded for it.
I am very stern at first. Most kids say I am mean. I have a JUST DO IT motto. When I give a direction I am like Nike… just do it. Don’t answer back or explain … just do it.

Then they realize I am stern with following rules… no excuses. But we can have fun and most of the time I am their favorite teacher.

My dad was a drill Sargent and police officer so I get it honest. lol

Gather some of your most recent “thanks for your tough teaching” emails and notes and have them on hand to show to the principal and parents (with student names redacted). Try to gather information about colleges your students got admitted to, jobs they may be doing now that involve writing, etc. Print off a couple of those NYT articles by your former student and any other examples you may have or can find. Find results from any state testing of English skills or if you know kids’ SAT and/or ACT scores. Basically, you’re trying to prove that you’re a tough, but good, teacher, and your methods have gotten great results for the kids.

I feel ya, because I too have been accused of being “too tough” and “you demand too much” and “no other teacher makes us work this hard.” And I just tell them about what some of those former students are doing now and how proud of them I am. They clam up pretty quickly.

You go and talk to the principal so they can arrange a meeting between you and the parents. Let them explain the context of their complaint so you can set up your defense. It's hard fighting about something that is just malicious and false.

Keep admin filled in. Keep copies of the student’s work. It is the parent who is abusive when they carry on like this. The bullying. The harassment. The tantrums. Let’s see them go to a dentist or a mechanic who passed because of pitching a fit.

I taught (retired now!) 6th grade Literature for 27 years. I also had parents comment that I was to “demanding” when it came to content and work. I never apologized for this fact. I wanted students to work their very hardest for me and stuff as much information in them that I possibly could.

It wasn’t often that I had parents complain about this fact, but when they did contact me, I was honest about my goals for their learning. When I explained how I ran my class and that I always gave time to start Literature homework/projects, they couldn’t argue anymore. They saw that their child would waste time by not getting started in class. I never showed test score results (even though they were always high) because that info was already posted for them to find. My “line” was that I had 44 minutes in class per day and 15 minutes for homework to be done. That is not an unreasonable amount of time to demand of a child. I also would say that if a student couldn’t keep up with that small amount of time, perhaps we needed to look at what/how the child organized and completed the work…where we often found the issue. Do not apologize for having high expectations for your students.

Are you abusive? We have a "hard" teacher who gets results through intimidation and fear.

Make sure to document everything, including the expectations that are set that may be viewed differently to this parent.

Call your Union rep.