You might want to think twice the next time you get an email from your child’s teacher.
One TikTok account under the username @bored_teachers is revealing the “secret code” that teachers use to communicate with parents about their children via email.
The account often creates original content through their in-house team or contracted network of creators, where they share experiences and jokes about being a teacher.
Each creator is currently still working in the classroom or was a former teacher. The viral video has already racked up over 67,000 views on the social media app.
“We have a code when we email parents,” the New Hampshire-based teacher, Jess, also known as Miss Smith, revealed in the video.
She went on to explain the real meanings behind the commonly used phrases.
“When we use phrases like, ‘Your child is very social,’ that means they won’t stop talking,” Jess, 33, said in the 19-second clip.
The TikTok account under the name @bored_teachers revealed that they have a “secret code” when emailing parents about their children.
She joked about the code she uses with parents in emails. TikTok/ @bored_teachersShe continued, explaining that if teachers say your child’s excitement is contagious, it means that they will “not calm down.”
To conclude, the TikTok creator divulged, “If they’re a ‘natural born leader,’ your child is super bossy.”
In an email to The Post on Tuesday, Jess explained that the code came from “years of trying to think of positive ways to communicate with parents without nit-picking a child’s personality.”
“I tried to be as positive as I could while corresponding with home or writing comments on report cards because I am here to build a relationship, not destroy it through constant criticism or bluntness,” she continued.
“I should add that while I’m not a confrontational person at all, if there was behavior that absolutely needed to be addressed directly — I would do that!”
In response to her video, some users seemed to identify with the teacher’s code.
“100% can confirm,” one viewer commented.
Another agreed, writing, “So so accurate 😂😂”
“‘Your son is going to make a great lawyer’ which is code for: your kid won’t stop arguing with me,” someone else joked.
However, others felt like the teacher should be more straightforward and tell parents what’s really going on.
“I take things literally,” one user typed. “I would not know this is code. just tell me like it is.”
“When we use phrases like, ‘Your child is very social,’ that means they won’t stop talking,” the TikTok creator said in the clip.
One teacher criticized, “I’m a teacher and do not use these ‘codes.’ It’s not helpful to anyone to sugarcoat an issue. I stick with facts and observations. Never had a problem with a parent relationship if I am direct but in a respectful and collaborative way. 🤷🏼♀️”
However, Jess maintained that the videos are meant to be humorous, and the code she spoke about was not for behavior that needed to be “corrected immediately.”
She also added that most parents do understand what is being inferred.
“If something direct needs to be said, you can guarantee that most teachers find a constructive and direct way to share that with parents in hopes they can work together to correct it!” she told The Post. “That’s the end goal — to work together as a team for the betterment of the child!”
In other TikTok teacher news, last fall, a Scottish teacher divided the internet after she showed off the outfits she wears to teach biology.
Some felt like her outfits, which consisted of short dresses with tights underneath, were “inappropriate.”
Another teacher reported on the social media platform that her Christmas present from her school this year was a COVID-19 rapid test.
