My son’s teacher…

I have never in my LIFE seen the mess I have seen since my kids started at this school in January. Briyana has not had one problem at this school. Tre? Much different story. The first day I met her, his teacher introduced herself as the “Queen of Discipline” and bragged that the students in “her” class only get ONE chance, period. At first, I thought this was ok… would teach them to do what they are supposed to do the first time, right? WRONG! These are 1st grade students, ages 6-7. Find me ONE child in the WORLD that could live up to that at that age. I promise, I will adopt them. haha Anyway, if you are going to be the “Queen of Discipline” then you also need to have the proper balance of POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT. Does this happen? Apparently not.

Some of the things she has sent notes home to me about:

• Tre growling in the lunch line. Um, seriously? In the lunch line? Like, as in ON THE WAY TO LUNCH? For real… who could he POSSIBLY have been disrupting?? Ok, thanks for letting me know… that I have a typical 6 year old BOY. I appreciate the good news.
• Tre not finishing his seat work before the bell rang. Um… again, seriously? I mean, there are several things I see wrong with this. If you send me a note saying he didn’t even START his seat work, that’s one thing; but you can’t expect EVERY child to work at the same pace. Especially PRIOR to 8am. Enough said.
• Tre would not start his reading lesson. This is pretty much all the time – he would rather continue working in his journal. Tre literally HATES to read. Why? Because he doesn’t feel like he can do it. He isn’t confident and when he reads, he says he’s “stupid” and that his sisters are smarter than him. I’m sorry, but why don’t you take time to find out WHY he repeatedly has this issue and perhaps ENCOURAGE him rather than ALWAYS endlessly scolding him and sending him to detention??? He gets preoccupied with his insecurities when he starts to read and I don’t really think that he’s trying to be defiant – I think it’s more that he just can’t focus because of everything going through his mind at the time!
• Tre not having his belt. Wow. I really cannot stand the school system anymore. First of all, the whole uniform thing is stupid in my opinion. Plus, not every family has enough money to have umpteen belts readily available – we have four children and only two child-sized belts. If one of those belts gets misplaced and can’t be tracked down by 6:30am when the bus runs, then guess what? NO BELT. I could see if they were coming to school with a t-shirt on or some blue jeans, but to send a child to DETENTION over a stupid belt? A 1st grader at that… I’m sorry; that’s just ridiculous.
• He got a 100 on his spelling assignment… she sends it home with a note by “TOOK” that says his “o”s are too close together and she puts (-1) on top of his paper. Really? I mean, lady, can’t you just give it a rest? He can’t even get 100 without you docking him for silly mess like that? It’s called SPELLING not PENMANSHIP… I mean, what do we pick on most about DOCTORS? Their handwriting – most of them have HORRIBLE penmanship… tell me how this is relevant? I could see if it was just plain sloppy or illegible but every word on his paper was written clearly. Wow. Seems Tre can’t get full credit for ANYTHING in her class.

Other irritations of mine:

• Tre went from a 2.25 GPA last 6 weeks to a 3.25 GPA this 6 weeks. He made the A-B honor roll. His teacher said not one word to him about it. Wow… what an opportunity for you to encourage him and tell him he can do better! Shows how much she truly cares. Tre had no idea he made honor roll until he came home and we told him. You should have seen his face. All grins lol
• About 2 weeks ago, she sent home a field trip form with a note that said if his behavior did not improve before the trip, he would not be able to go and my money would not be refunded. Ok, point 1 – if I pay for a trip and he doesn’t go, you had better believe you WILL give me my money back. The last thing you want to see is Kathleen 30 weeks pregnant clowning at the school over 5 bucks. So, I sent the money and signed the form. THE NEXT DAY she sends the form and the money home and says Tre will NOT be going on the trip and to keep him home that day. Now, let’s press the issue – by sending home the weekly newsletter that has the field trip “x”ed out with STAY HOME! written beneath it as well as commenting on his behavior report KEEP HIM AT HOME! Ok, lady you’re starting to igg me. I got it. The first time. I’m not one of your students. Period. So anyway, let’s go back to the fact that she said if his behavior doesn’t improve before the trip he won’t go – then she sends home the note saying he can’t go the very next day… now, two weeks later, the field trip is Friday and I’m looking at his behavior chart – he has gone from an “F” to a “C”… um, correct me if I am wrong… maybe I’m an idiot, but isn’t that an improvement of TWO letter grades in his conduct? This would mean he SHOULD go on the field trip, right?

I’m so sick of this. I cannot WAIT until this year is over.