I do my best to not make it worse for her.
I need to do better.
This year she has a very young, inexperienced "teacher" who is very brittle and delicate. My daughter likes her, and I try to keep it that way. No need to make her more unhappy than she is.
A few weeks ago, the woman sent out a message saying that the students were having trouble with the math vocabulary words.
I nicely mentioned that I would have trouble learning them the way they were being "taught" (but I didn't use sarcastiquotes).
The woman sends home a list of math words, stripped of context, and defined with other words the kids probably don't know. And my daughter has a much better vocabulary than most of her classmates, so if she has trouble understanding what is being said, I can only imagine the trouble other kids are having.
I politely said that, divorced from context, my daughter was having trouble attaching meaning to the words, and remembering the relationships. And, that if I were in the kids' shoes, I would also be struggling. I ended by saying I realized it wasn't her fault, that she was only teaching what (and how) she was required.
I got back a somewhat snarky reply, saying the words are taught in context in class (which just illustrates my point), and that if I had questions, I needed to call her. It was very dismissive.
I didn't call. She ignored my point when written out, why should I believe she would listen to me speak?
So, I let it drop and things haven't changed. Why would they?
But weeks later I got a message that my daughter wants to call me to come get her out of school every day at about 9:30am. She is distracted from completing her work, and is making the other kids upset, wondering why she doesn't want to be in school. The woman said my daughter told her this particular day that her pet had died, and she was very upset. She finished by saying that she cares about my daughter and doesn't want any kid to be unhappy in school.
Remembering my previous attempt at communication, I confirmed that a pet did in fact die during the night. Then I said, quite simply and honestly, that my daughter doesn't like school. That's it. I didn't say "hates school" or anything. And, I included a link to this: “Why Don’t Students Like School?” Well, Duhhhh…
I thought that would be fairly safe; not from a libertarian source, nor anarchist, or even from unschoolers.
I thought wrong.
My daughter's mother (I foolishly forwarded the "teacher's" message to her) contacted the woman and tried to find out what was going on. The teacher said she had gotten 2 comments from me (counting the one weeks before, apparently) and they made her "uncomfortable".
I wasn't mean, nasty, or unpleasant, and I certainly wasn't threatening to her. I can see no reason for her to have felt "uncomfortable" from my messages.
Well, suck it up, Buttercup. You are in a "job" that violates my daughter's life, liberty, and property (and mine, too). You enthusiastically sacrifice education for schooling. I consider you a child abuser, or at least an accessory. And yet I am still being nice when I need to deal with your unresponsive, entitled self.
Henceforth, if I need to refer to you, I will refer to you by your new name: Princess Snowflake.
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