Should You Pick Your Child's Teacher?

It’s interesting the debates you find when you troll the Internet. (Not that I troll much. Really. I'm far too productive for that.) But I have stumbled upon a few where parents have argued whether you should request teachers for your kids.

Apparently, some schools are very open to the idea, and often grant parents' requests for certain teachers. The thinking seems to be that parents know their kids better than anyone; therefore, let them pick who will be teaching their child. Others don't allow it at all, feeling that teachers and administrators put a lot of thought into making class lists, distributing abilities and behaviors fairly in each classroom.

According to Marcia Wilkinson, community relations director for , the district does not have a policy allowing parents to choose their kids' teachers. In fact, they discourage the practice. However, I do remember filling out a form about our kids' personalities that seemed designed to match our children with a suitable teacher when they first started elementary school. Kind of like online dating.

I don't know that I ever wanted to anyway. At any level. Grade school, middle school, high school. Guess I've always wanted my kids to get in the habit of making lemonade out of lemons. (Not that I’m comparing teachers to lemons.)

Besides, I'm not sure I'd be the person I am today without teachers who sometimes preferred yelling over speaking, or looked like they slept with their cats.

The one who like to um, shout, was Mrs. Holland. If we weren't paying attention, she yelled. If we chatted, she yelled. If we breathed the fine oxygen in the room, she yelled. Parents today would be horrified at this technique for classroom management (although I'm pretty sure my mom thought Mrs. H. was wonderful). The funny thing is even though she sometimes screamed like a traffic cop during rush hour, I actually learned a lot.

Then there was my high school algebra teacher, Mrs. Webster. She looked like she never washed her hair (although I'm sure she did) and was strangely simpatico with her cats. This seemed to distract other kids from the very point of education: to learn. Oddly, in spite of her peculiar demeanor, I thought she had a very clear way of explaining why X plus Y equaled something I'd probably never use again.

And I'll never forget Mrs. Brown, the one teacher who seemed to have no classroom control whatsoever. Though I didn't learn a lick of French in her 8th grade class, I did master the ability to get some much needed social time in with my friends. I like to think that skill came in handy later on.

Trolling the Internet again, I found this quote from Dr. Paul T. Donahue, author of Parenting Without Fear, in an updated 2010 Associated Press story on teacher choice: “Our job as parents is not to make everything perfect for our kids." He went on to say that "children learn important life lessons—how to be resilient and adapt to a range of situations—when required to roll with the punches."

Well, there you go. My mom never tried to make things perfect, including my teachers, and I like to think I turned into a decent sort of person. As parents, I don't think we should pick our children's teachers, anyway. We certainly can’t pick their bosses. Or spouses. Or future offspring. And to borrow some words from Rodney King, we want them to get along, don’t we? Sitting in the crazy cat teacher’s class is a great place to start.