I would personally not be comfortable with this. Would the teachers consider meeting at the office instead? Call me old fashioned, but while I would obviously want some kind of connection to be made, I'd still like it to be somewhat at arms length. I'd have to be quite comfortable with you to let you in my dining room, and I'm not sure I want to create that level of comfort with a teacher who changes every semester.

As.. odd as it sounds, no I wouldn't want my sons teacher's in our home. We aren't ashamed of our religious or cultural beliefs however seeing our home may make a teacher see our child differently. It looks a bit like a witches cave from a movie.. herbs hanging everywhere, more plants than furniture.. my husband has knives and swords everywhere.. a lot of art people would consider "inappropriate" for children such as Boris Vallejo prints. When it comes to my child's education I want them to see him for him, and not for how they feel people "like us" must have raised him. (We live in a small very hick christian town)

I would far rather meet in a neutral school office or classroom.

Unless the home visit of the teacher is needed for an educational reason like a Home Bound student, I would decline to have the teacher in my home. Teachers and parents each have roles. If the child begins to think Mom and the Teacher are pals they may expect special attention or believe they can get by with things in class. If the teacher wishes to visit with the parents, the school or classroom is the more appropriate place in my opinion. If the teacher believes a home visit is necessary I would need more info on why, and what benefit they expect to see from the visit before I would agree.

No way. My home is my sanctuary and I only invite those whom I welcome to visit that sanctuary. My children's teachers do not belong in my home. I wouldn't expect my boss to come to my house to determine how he would give me a performance evaluation at work, so a teacher shouldn't evaluate a child or their family at home.

Additionally, it's my job to raise my children, not the state, not the school, not the teachers at the school.

This would also give teacher ammunition to use against a child. For example, what if a child has a conservative Christian teacher who visits the home of upstanding citizens who happen to be Wiccans and have an altar in their home? What of the other people who live in the home and their right to privacy too?

No, this is a bad idea... too many government fingers into raising our children as it is.

The thing is, I think some would say that if you're not doing anything wrong, nothing to worry about--but that's not a great stance to take. There's nothing wrong in my home. It's clean, my kids are healthy (well, one of them is 22, so I guess she's not really a kid anymore), and we're happy and do well in life and in our family.

The only thing I teacher need concern themselves with is whether or not the child is performing adequately in school or if there is clear evidence of suspected child abuse. Everything else steps outside the box of the job description.

That is, in part, why I home school my son now.

First of all, I was taught by my own parents that it's extremely rude to invite yourself to someone's home. I'd feel a bit put off but if it were a voluntary program it could benefit some parents who'd like to talk to the teacher but just can't fit the school visits into their schedules, I guess I'd feel alright with it but probably wouldn't invite them myself (thank goodness my kids are grown and I don't have to deal with public schools anymore). But there was an article in our regional newspaper recently about REQUIRING parents to allow their children's teachers (of a particular school system) into their students' homes and I don't think that is right at all. Big Brother is watching us a bit too closely already.

Quite frankly, when my kids were in school I stopped attending parent-teacher conferences after a while because I always heard the same thing, "Your child could do better if he/she would just apply him/herself." Well, I already knew that! I also knew that one was a follower and would act up as soon as the first classmate did, that another wasn't turning in homework, one had problems with being distracted, and so on. No real good came from the conferences and they just seemed like a waste of time and money, having to leave work to attend them.

My daughter just attended her second and third grader's conferences this week, and says the teacher seemed overly concerned that the younger one was writing run-on sentences without using punctuation properly. Well, to my way of thinking, that's not necessarily a bad thing. She's a creative child and her mind goes a mile a minute sometimes, who's got time to stop and punctuate? Even as a writer, I don't see that as a major problem. Even some of the most creative writers can't spell or punctuate worth a darn, that's what editors are for!

The older child has trouble, apparently, with talking in class when he should be quiet. Heck, he's an active nine-year-old who loves attention--normal kid stuff. He's not causing trouble, just disruptive. And he prefers to do his school work sitting on the floor, for some reason. Does it really matter if he's not sitting at his desk, as long as the work gets done?

I think it's time we stopped trying to force our children into molds and filling their brains with rote memorization instead of encouraging them to think creatively and love learning. (Most kids naturally love to learn until they get to school and it becomes work). As long as they are respectful of their teachers and not causing harm to other students, that's about as much as we should expect from them. Today's kids are somehow different from those of previous generations; I've heard many explanations why, but I think it's time to stop letting our schools have so much authority over our families and children..

If I were starting my own family today, I'd keep them out of public schools (at least until high school) and home school them myself. Good grades and exemplary behavior in school don't necessarily determine a student's success later in life, it's a person's own drive and ambition that counts. (Or who their daddy is, we did have a president who had a C average in school, ya know....)

I would not welcome a home visit from my child's teacher.

Why?

Because I have gone on home visits with other teachers and heard some of the comments made after such visits.

Keep your sanctuary safe from scrutiny by those who would exercise control over it.

If you really care for development of you child, and teachers of it are really good, then you shouldn't have any objection for their visit.