Dealing with Difficult Parents

I got a lot out of the content-suggestions and examples. I found myself filtering some sections at times but the time I spent reading this book was well spent.

This book is a judgmental guide intended to help teachers manipulate parents. Casting parents as enemies who use words and tears as weapons, serves no one. The amount of empathy toward parents in this whole book fills only about 3 paragraphs. Instead, the authors actually refer to some parents as “idiots” and offer strategies for “getting the upper hand” against them. They mention putting students “in the corner” as if that is still an acceptable way of managing behavior. The book also is light on content and rather repetitive. (Maybe that’s a good thing since the content is so poor.) I am shocked to see such an unsympathetic and outdated resource from otherwise respected authors and a highly respected publisher. Very disappointing.

Dealing with Difficult Parents is a great book for explaining why parents can be difficult (it's not a negative book about parents) and how to deal with them. It also includes scripts of what to say and why you should use that language. New teachers are pretty shy about calling parents so I've used this information (along with 10 Minute In-service) to create our classroom management PD for new teachers.

The drop out prevention committee that I lead is reading this book this year as we focus on family engagement. Whitaker writes in a way that is easy to read. Almost like you are sitting around listening to him tell stories. We have used the companion book which has a lot of suggested activities to go along with our book study.

Used as a textbook for a class, but this book is both hilarious and helpful. Already have recommended to teacher friends.

It talks a lot about the problems in education that lead to problems with parents. They include the deterioration of families, income that has decreased, generational gaps between parents and children who have different perceptions of education, lower standards, and many more. Professors do not talk about these matters. Many of them never taught in primary and secondary education. The authors did. Their stories and advice are very helpful. They talk about a lot more than just dealing with parents.

Great advice! My number one take away is call people, don't email. While it feels harder, it's a much easier way to diffuse a situation.

A definite must read for all educators. This has to be the best education book I have ever read.

Very useful book.