Teacher Comes Up With Unique Way To Remind Parents To Check Their Kid’s Bookbag — But Millennial Parents Complain
Why complain when someone is trying to make it easier for all?
Krakenimages.com via Shutterstock Telling a child to remind their parents about forms in their folder is the same as telling a goldfish to do a backflip. First, they’ll forget, and second, why would they want to do that to begin with?
Parents, on the other hand, are heads or tails on whether they’ll check their child's bag, especially if they are not told to. We won’t blame the parents for not checking every day. However, they need to be reminded of important items.
A teacher devised a 'simple' solution to remind parents to check their children's backpacks, but parents responded with significant backlash.
Teachers across TikTok are sharing the parental backlash from using paper wristbands as reminders to check student backpacks for important paperwork.
Former teacher Maggie Perkins explained, "It's a wristband like you get for events or festivals, and then you would put them on your students to help them remember to do something they needed to do."
It seems simple, logical, and effective. To my future teacher's brain, this is genius and something I will adopt in my classroom. However, some parents did not approve.
Perkins continued, "One student decided to take that wristband and use it to give herself bruises on her arm." She explained that the student fidgeted with the bracelet, rubbing it back and forth on her wrist, causing noticeable "little abrasions." When the student got home, Perkins said, "She told her mom that I had hurt her."
Needless to say, the wristband system was quickly, for lack of a better term, disbanded.
Unfortunately, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and a few people's complaints have ruined the system for many.
Yes, you can send emails or text messages. Some schools even have apps where parents can get updates throughout the day and find important information. But let’s be realistic: most parents probably have thousands of unread emails or don’t want to look at their missed messages when they’re trying to relax at night.
Instead of seeing it as a useful tool, however, many parents were outraged.
Instead of complaining, however, perhaps parents should do what TikToker and mom, Jade Star, heatedly argued: check their child's backpack.
Could some kids come home with papercuts? Yes! Could they get papercuts from a library book or classroom worksheet just as easily? Yes, and yes. As Star pointed out in so many words, some people just like to complain for the sake of complaining.
Setting precedents for how you will run your classroom from the beginning is important.
Most, if not all, schools host a “Meet the Teacher” night before school starts so parents and students can see their classrooms and get to know their teachers before the year begins. During this time, teachers may go over some general classroom rules for the parents and send home important paperwork.
As a future teacher, I believe that starting the year with the precedent of “This is how I will send home important messages; please be sure to check your child’s arm” is an easy way to communicate your intentions and how you will run your classroom.
Unfortunately, as Perkins pointed out, "Even in the most well-intentioned scenario, there will always be somebody who finds a way to dig in and make it unbearable." Adding, "Even the most well-intended ideas can have repercussions that are unknown to the teacher ... and it causes the teacher to be hesitant to try new things in the future."
Communication is a crucial part of any job, especially when dealing with little humans. Sadly, instead of support and praise for creative solutions, teachers are leaving the profession in droves because they are undervalued.
Madison Piering is a writer on YourTango's Entertainment and News team, specializing in human interest and pop culture topics.