This afternoon I am invited, without my pimple, to attend a parent-teacher meeting at my daughter’s school. I am already preparing myself (little under-the-breath pep talks) to control the natural aggression that comes seething up my chest and threatens to burst from behind my teeth at any criticism of my child.  It’s not that I think she’s perfect (I do), and it’s not that I expect her to excel in every aspect of life (I don’t) but I expect her to get credit for effort and improvement. If we don’t applaud our children for trying, why should they? Often I think the teacher’s shortcomings are projected onto the child. The teaching profession is no longer a vocation or a passion for the majority of teachers, but a paycheck and discounted school fees for their own brats. My advice to teachers?  If you are telling more than one parent their child is ADHD – it may well be that the content of your lesson, or its delivery, is BORING.

I also think that our schools have forgotten the fundamental importance of play and rest. 5 year olds are not designed to sit still for 2 hours at a time, and boys and girls ARE very different. Children are robbed of their freedom, their natural exuberance, their curiosity, and their right to question everything (including the teacher’s right to lead them). I am dreading the day my son starts school; then the feathers are really going to fly! I received his acceptance letter yesterday, and attached were the rules and various avenues of discipline at the school’s disposal. Can you believe he would be punished if I forgot to sign and return his communications folder? If I decided to put a Coke in his lunch box, he would be penalized, possibly with detention. How does a 5 year old control these things? Oh, and if he INADVERTENTLY breaks something, he will be punished, and I suppose expelled if he did it on purpose?

Clearly that is why I am in such a strop today. And I’m getting angrier as I write. It’s nothing to do with my daughter’s teacher, but rather, with the school.  Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. Whether everyone leaves the room alive, whether I am transformed into a red-faced harridan with spittle flying from my screaming mouth, whether my husband is spared the embarrassment of me losing my temper … so much responsibility to behave myself.

But someone once gave me fantastic advice – stick up for your child! If you don’t, who will?

This entry was posted on July 5th, 2011 at 12:12 pm by Tina Rolfe and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.