Parent-Teacher Conferences

Quick summary:  Parent-Teacher conferences (at my school, at least) are two days in a row, four hours apiece, after I work for 8 hours teaching. 

So ... 13 hours, two days in a row, rolling into school in the dark and then out of school, in the dark.

Then the students are off Friday (because they're obviously so tired from going to school), but teachers have to attend a staff day Friday to learn about how to be teachers. 

Hmmm....  (I think if we didn't know how before, it's a little late at this point.)

To add insult to injury, Senior Skip Day is Thursday.  So the kids whose parents won't call them out of school have to suffer through "lessons" which will need to be partially repeated, because most of their peers are sleeping in or hanging out with their friends. 

Cool.

I learn, every day, how much the education system in 2018 is completely broken. 

On each teacher's table is a sign which says, "Please limit your conference to 5 minutes".  That won't happen.  Parents will get pissed at having to wait.  Students will get berated in front of me for doing poorly in class.  I will get berated by parents for not coddling lazy students.  Administrators will roam around, surveying the room for discrepancies.  Nothing, ultimately, will be accomplished.  My ass will be totally asleep by 8:30.

Again, the year is 2018.  Social media is omnipresent in the lives of students, parents, and teachers.  We DO NOT need to block off 8 hours of time for parents to find out about their children's progress in school.  If a problem exists, I am at work 5 days a week, 8 hours at a time, and I read my email every single day, even out of school hours.  Students, parents, and teachers can communicate every day, almost all the time, without this antiquated nonsense.

Stop.