This reminds me of my own 1st grade teacher. Any time there was a behavior the teacher didn't like you had to "pull a card". You started with an A and if you got down to an F, you got detention at recess. This teacher really seemed to have it out for me. She didn't like anything I did. Wouldn't even let me color a person with red hair because there was no crayon the color of red hair. One day I was bored with my work and was somewhat subconsciously making sounds like a ringing telephone. I was a VERY quiet and shy kid, so this was extremely unusual. With no warning she pulled two cards on me taking me to a C. One card was the norm and usually a warning preceded it. I looked at her with shock and said "Why..." and before I could say anything else she took me down to an F for back talking. I was given a 10 minute detention at recess and since I wore a watch, I knew my time was up. I waited a little while for her to release me, but she didn't so I reminded her of the time. For that she made stay for the rest of recess and started me with a C card the next day.

I began having lots of stomach trouble from the stress of not just this incident, but many others as well, so my mom took me to the doctor. She had no idea of the stress I felt and thought I was sick. While waiting, I drew a picture on the paper on the exam table. It was me, holding a gun, with my teacher laying there having been shot. Now, before you go thinking I'm psycho, know that I had complete understanding it would be a horrific thing to do and that I would NEVER do that for real and only used it as a way to get my doctor to see how much she bothered me. My mom was completely clueless about most anything I went through and never advocated for me... but that's a whole different story. Anyway, my doctor certainly took notice. She sent my drawing to my principal and he immediately moved me into a different classroom. My friends said that teacher was MUCH nicer to everyone from then on and she transferred to the high school to become the librarian the following year. I was so proud. I felt like I had righted an injustice for everyone, not just me.

Sorry, I have no advice... other than you probably shouldn't let your child handle it the way I did.


Mary