I had one last night at Meet the Teacher Night, which is supposed to be where the parents follow their kid's schedule and just hear the teachers talk about their classes and how to do well. It's not supposed to be "talk to the teacher about my kid night" or "I have a bone to pick with the teacher" night, but I digress.
I teach three sections of 10th grade developmental reading for kids who read below grade level. It's always an awkward conversation with parents when I explain why their kid is in the class. One section, I had only one parent there and as the class time began she said, "this is good that it's just me because I wanted to talk to you." Oh no, I think. She then tells me that she can't believe her son is in the class because she has a Ph. D. and has been reading to him for his entire life. She says he has always been an avid reader "until about middle school." Well...he has a middle school reading level, which makes sense.
She then says that she was not happy with the reading education he received at a private school for elementary and said that she "couldn't believe that was what she was paying for." Basically the whole conversation was about how she is certain her kid reads on grade level and he is just in the class because he "messed around" on the reading test they took in 9th grade because he didn't think it mattered.
I told her that he is actually showing some deficits according to the online reading program we use, so the class will be good for him. I pulled up his progress chart, which showed he reads at about a 7th/8th grade level, and a sample passage. She said that this was probably just because he didn't want to read about the topic the passage was about.
I said, "I understand that, but he's going to have to read about things he doesn't want to read about in life, that's just how it is." She seemed to understand but the entire time just felt like she was angry at me for her kid being in a remedial reading class. She then said, "I do want to talk to you about something else, you're the department chair, right?" I'm not but asked what it was and maybe I could help...well she has a problem with his English teacher ("She's new") giving him a bad grade on a "really easy" assignment. I said that she'd need to talk to that teacher since I didn't know anything about this. Thankfully the class period was over at that point and I could send her on her way. It was so awkward.
I'm not sure how else I should have handled it. I feel weird about the whole thing, but I was backed into a corner and expected to still be diplomatic. These events are just so nerve wracking. I'd rather talk to kids any day!
Oh and also I had a parent use me as a sounding board for her grievances about the school uniform. Sigh.