Customer Reviews

Dealing With Difficult Parents And With Parents in Difficult Situations

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Do you find it challenging and frustrating to deal with the parent who is

- bossy?

- argumentative?

- apathetic?

- intimidating?

What's the best way to deliver bad news to parents?

Written for teachers, administrators, and other educators, this book will help you work with the most difficult parents in the most challenging situations. It shows you how to:

- avoid the "trigger" words which serve only to make bad situations worse

- use the right words and phrases to develop more positive relationships with parents

- deal with parents who accuse you of not being "fair"

- build positive relationships with even the most challenging parents

With vivid examples, this book will show you how to:

- handle a parent's complaint when the parent is right

- use body language to influence the way parents react to what you say

- make it easy to contact parents during the day to inform them when their children have done something worthy of praise (achieved a high grade, helped another student, etc.)

- increase parent involvement in their children's education both at school and at home

Dr. Todd Whitaker, a former middle and high school principal is currently Assoc. Prof. of Educ. Leadership at Indiana State University. He is the author of several best selling books. He has keynoted state, national, and international conferences and is a highly sought presenter for teachers and principals. Dr. Douglas J. Fiore, a former teacher & principal, is currently on the faculty of the State University of West Georgia.

Dealing With Difficult Parents (And With Parents in Difficult Situations) by Todd Whitaker (Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana) and Douglas J. Fiore (Assistant Dean of the College of Education, State University of West Georgia) is a straightforward guide written especially for teachers, principals, and others who share a mandate to educate young minds. Individual chapters capably address how to deal with parents that prove difficult in any number of ways including abrasive personalities, hard to reach, excessive anger, and a host of other ill traits and situations. Dealing With Difficult Parents is a solidly recommended emotional and verbal self-defense manual for fostering the best possible learning environment.

As a new principal, I wanted a book to give me more confidence in dealing with parent conflicts. This book teaches practical scenarios for commonly experienced parental conflicts that produce a win-win outcome. The scripted dialogues and tips in nerve-wracking situations are clear and adaptable.

The authors of this book have provided excellent insights for educators, both at the administrative level and the classroom level, for dealing with parents. One of the key benefits to this text is that it provides clear and practical ideas as to how to prevent parents from being difficult to begin with.

Most educators are keenly aware of the critical nature that early communication plays in maintaining parental support for the school's role in their child's life. However, many, due to time constraints don't follow through and things wait until issues have become emotional. As a result, dealing with parents can be an unpleasant experience. Whitaker and Fiore show how with a calm nature, teachers and principals can defuse these situations. Some of the ideas require that the educator remain calm and not become emotional themselves, a difficult task to say the least, but not becoming emotional, as the authors point out, is one of the keys to being viewed as a professional.

In my opinion, no teacher education program should let their students get by without having read this book.

This text was in good shape, no bent pages, marks, etc. It also came quickly before I needed it for my class...and I'm based in China too. So was a good purchase overall!

This is an excellent book for those who find it difficult dealing with parents of students in their school. There are many helpful tips and strategies that will work with all parents as well as the more difficult ones. With new research that is continually being cited on the topic of parent involvement, I am awaiting a new, revised edition of this book. Great to find references to other sources, organizations and researchers who have done work in the field of parent involvement, including the PTA six national standards.

The book has many very good points and suggestions for educators to deal with difficult parents. I bought two copies as gifts for colleagues who just started their careers as elementary school principals, and they liked it as well. As with most books regarding education topics, there are some things that are utopian, such as encouraging parents to contact you at home making relations so much better.