UPDATE! Advice sought: Am I way out of line being angry at a teacher about this??? - Page 4

[MrsRefney]

Glad to see things seem to be resolved. If only more children had parents who would advocate that well for them.

Keep up your vigilance with regard to communication with the teacher. She knows you are "watching" her, and don't let her forget!

[EmsMom]

You did a great job in your meeting. I was especially impressed by:

"I told her that I understand a solid faith, I can respect that, that I wasn't trying to be difficult, but this prayer issue needed to be stopped because it is illegal, and she agreed."

You managed to be deeply respectful of everyone involved, including yourself and your child. :

[maxwill129]

Wow! I'm impressed with how well you handled that. I'm scared that if I should ever have to have a meeting with the school that I will blow my top!

[ginger_rodgers]

Erm...it sounds good, but to me has all the hallmarks of "fear-driven turnaround". They know they screwed up in a big way, but what they're mostly sorry about is having gotten caught. I'd put down a hundred dollars says you have problems again with the lack of communication and creeping Jesus and then a tearful, "I had no idea!"

You're not the first parent to come along, just remember that. They've met people like you before, and you've still had to go in and fix problems on this scale. The two big question, to me, are these:

1. For this year: There's three, 3.5 months to go. At what point is it not worth making a change?

2. For the future: If this kind of thing was tolerated in this classroom, what else goes on in higher grades? I'd advise you find the sharpest and most complainy parents you know -- look for the parents of the gifted kids -- and hear what they've got to say.

[sapientia]

Originally Posted by ginger_rodgers

Erm...it sounds good, but to me has all the hallmarks of "fear-driven turnaround". They know they screwed up in a big way, but what they're mostly sorry about is having gotten caught. I'd put down a hundred dollars says you have problems again with the lack of communication and creeping Jesus and then a tearful, "I had no idea!"

You're not the first parent to come along, just remember that. They've met people like you before, and you've still had to go in and fix problems on this scale. The two big question, to me, are these:

1. For this year: There's three, 3.5 months to go. At what point is it not worth making a change?

2. For the future: If this kind of thing was tolerated in this classroom, what else goes on in higher grades? I'd advise you find the sharpest and most complainy parents you know -- look for the parents of the gifted kids -- and hear what they've got to say.

I agree, Ginger I have another son in fourth grade and am friends with some parents on his little league team and we do talk a lot about teachers, etc. overall she is really the only teacher who has gotten a lot of complaints (lateness of replies-etc.).
The really cool thing is that my mom has worked for the school system for 30+ years and is friends with the school superintendent...I can tell you if there is another issue at all, I go straight to him.
Thanks again, everyone for the kind words!

[CarrieMF]

Thats when the teacher said that she thought I got the papers and understood.
ummm, nooo

What the school here does is send the papers home & the parents have to sign the papers then the student eturns the papers to school. that way the parent & teacher & child all know they've all seen it. Of course there are families who don't do it, but they're not the ones as likely to complain about something either, yk.

Here they still do the Lord's Prayer, drives me nuts but to fight it I"d have to fight the school board & this is a very conservative area so it could be a losing battle.

I chose NOT to fight it because it is MY issue, not necessarily my children's issue.

Now they do NOT have to say it. If they don't want to say it they just stand there respectfully(they do it right after O Canada so they're standing anyhow)

When they do Operation Christmas Child, an obvious christian organization, the kids can choose to go to the presentation or sit in the library.

When the Gideon bibles were handed out in Grade 5, they had a choice to take one or not.

I have 3 kids in the school, in all of their classes approx 1/3 of the class chooses to not participate in these christian things. They are not tease, persecuted or anything for not participating.

My 1 dd has a girl in her class who does not celebrate Christmas. When the entire school was sitting in the halls singing christmas carols(rudolph,frosty, some christian ones like silent night) the last week before christmas she sat in her classroom with her teacher instead.

Even though we live in a very conservative area, our school is one of the most tolerant schools. In some of the other schools there'd definitly be issues from other students.

[fadedgirl]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

My 1 dd has a girl in her class who does not celebrate Christmas. When the entire school was sitting in the halls singing christmas carols(rudolph,frosty, some christian ones like silent night) the last week before christmas she sat in her classroom with her teacher instead.

Oh my gosh this tugs my heart strings.


OP: I am very glad that things were resolved to your satisfaction. I do wonder if you know if the other parents just didn't know about the prayer, or condoned it?

[sapientia]

Originally Posted by fadedgirl

Oh my gosh this tugs my heart strings.


OP: I am very glad that things were resolved to your satisfaction. I do wonder if you know if the other parents just didn't know about the prayer, or condoned it?

The parents I talked to (who are Christian, btw) were shocked about the praying, didn't know about it.

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

What the school here does is send the papers home & the parents have to sign the papers then the student eturns the papers to school. that way the parent & teacher & child all know they've all seen it. Of course there are families who don't do it, but they're not the ones as likely to complain about something either, yk.

Here they still do the Lord's Prayer, drives me nuts but to fight it I"d have to fight the school board & this is a very conservative area so it could be a losing battle.

I chose NOT to fight it because it is MY issue, not necessarily my children's issue.

Now they do NOT have to say it. If they don't want to say it they just stand there respectfully(they do it right after O Canada so they're standing anyhow)

When they do Operation Christmas Child, an obvious christian organization, the kids can choose to go to the presentation or sit in the library.

When the Gideon bibles were handed out in Grade 5, they had a choice to take one or not.

I have 3 kids in the school, in all of their classes approx 1/3 of the class chooses to not participate in these christian things. They are not tease, persecuted or anything for not participating.

My 1 dd has a girl in her class who does not celebrate Christmas. When the entire school was sitting in the halls singing christmas carols(rudolph,frosty, some christian ones like silent night) the last week before christmas she sat in her classroom with her teacher instead.

Even though we live in a very conservative area, our school is one of the most tolerant schools. In some of the other schools there'd definitly be issues from other students.

Good heavens! This is a public school? That's a lot of praying.