School daze

[thesynergizer]

First grade has been an uphill battle. It turns out that many people knew this teacher was less than stellar. Several of them left the program, quietly, but they did talk to those who pushed them for answers

Comments

[bicrim]

If I were you, I would be in there today talking to the principal, and if it was not immediately changed, I would pull him from class and go to the board of ed or the media. We can not let our children be emotionally abused in the classroom, not even for one day. This makes me ill. I would not leave my 6 year old in an environment like that, even if he said he wanted me to. No way in hell. That teacher should be fired. God, I hate what public schools have become.

[thesynergizer]

a. lighthouse isn't a public school, persay, its a co-op.
b. i went to the principal last week and she said to make an appointment with the teacher. she said if we try that and nothing changes then we can get her involved.
c. from what i know about you, it makes sense that you would say that. and i appreciate hearing it. but for me, i have a lot at stake here, some of which i don't really even want to go into right now, but my feelings are that children are people too. My "saving" him from the abuse isn't doing him any favors if he isn't feeling abused and is more traumatized to lose his life and friends and everything he knows and loves. we may have to agree to disagree on this one.

[alison_in_oh]

I thought I remembered you'd worked hard to get him into a co-op...so...

Aren't there parents in the classroom? And isn't this a *parents'* cooperative? I would think that would give you a much stronger voice than in a normal public school. Can you go to the board with this? If people are leaving the program over this, it's a big deal!

Also, why is it between Lighthouse and homeschool? I mean, it's kind of like your worst public-school fears are already here, so how much worse could a real public school classroom be? You at least have a chance of a good teacher.

But our cooperative's parent educator tells us that multiple studies have shown that more than teacher quality and school funding, the most important factor in a successful education is parent involvement. Just your caring is important. I'm sure Ben will be OK!

[thesynergizer]

parent work days start in october. we orginally were planning to hold off saying anything about the problem until then and we could see for ourselves. many other parents encouraged me to say something before that though. you are 100 percent right that my worst fears about public school are coming true, and i dunno if our homeschool would be better or not.

the everett school district has an honors/advanced type program called highly capable that starts in 2nd grade that i am really really sure ben will qualify for, so we're leaning heavily toward doing that next year no matter how this drama turns out. so i'd hate to move him schools twice. my preference is to fix the problems and leave him in, but if its intolerable, then homeschooling the rest of this year is probably what we'll do. my husband offered his help last night which meant A LOT to my overwhelment factor.

[thesynergizer]

Sorry for confusion, by "our homeschool" i mean, our normal public school that we would be sent too based on our address, vs. the school he currently goes to which he is only able to go to via a varience form that is dependant on his being enrolled in the lighthouse "program" (the principal does not like when we call it a separate school)