The Wrath of Dad: A Letter from a Concerned American Parent

The Wrath of Dad: A Letter from a Concerned American Parent

Abstract

Culture awareness programs practiced and implemented through academic activities in a school are an important part of the curriculum. This allows the students to learn, relate and respect other cultures prevalent in the society. However, many parents may not necessarily agree with this approach. The letter received from the father of one of the student reflects a clear disapproval towards the culture awareness program practiced in the school. The paper therefore will discuss of the steps that can be taken by the principal to ensure that the complaints from the parents are dealt without affecting the cultural balance in the curriculum.

Introduction

Running a school as a principal is not an easy task. As an administrator vested with so much power and authority, I feel that I am not just responsible for the academic and professional growth and development of the students. However, a principal is also feel responsible for creating and maintaining an environment that respects, supports and promotes various other aspects associated with the students that are inevitable to neglect. These include the diversity in religions, faiths, traditional and ethical values and believe and so forth. Nonetheless, over the years, many incidents have reinforced my faith upon the fact that one of the most important and rather critical factor is to manage the cultural diversity of the students in my school.

Discussion

A letter from the father of one of my students criticizing the Mexican project was not a new or alien experience for me. However, I will be honest in saying that the anger and volatility in the letter worried me to some extent. I never found a parent as upset and disappointed from any of our culture based projects as the parent who sent me the letter. Hence, I was completely stunned and surprised. My first perception regarding the writer of the letter was him to be a proud racist American. Nonetheless, I still felt absurd and curious towards the situation.

Then, I read the letter again to see if the letter would mean something else this time but it wasn't so. However this time I did not feel angry on the parent yet I felt concerned. The harshness of the words and rigidity of the tone of the writer was so obvious that I did not felt the need to read the letter again. By then, the surprise and the astonishment was gone. I felt more calm and cool. Moreover, I realized that it is the right of every parent to share his opinions, thoughts and perspectives about any event or occurrences in the school. Similarly, I realized that the parents of our students also have the right to criticize and complain about any of the academic projects.

Therefore, this thought simply helped me to accept the fact that the parents of one of my students completely disapprove the multi cultural activities taking place in the ...