DD7(almost) is in 2nd grade, as many of you know. She is an extremely sensitive child who goes out of her way to obey rules and behave (at least in public,
and especially at school). Well, when I came to pick her up today she asked if I had brought her change of clothes since we were staying for an event at the school tonight. She then specifically asked if I had brought clean underwear. Immediately I asked why, and what happened. Well, now that I have heard the whole story, I am fuming!
Apparently, while at school today her class went to the computer room for a lesson. The teacher spend a lot of time explaining what they were suppose to be doing. DD started dancing around and wiggling because she had to go to the bathroom so badly. The teacher has a rule though that you can not ask to go to the bathroom if she is speaking until she is done! If you interrupt her to ask you are told "no you can't go" and you get in trouble! Well, the teacher told her to sit down and stop dancing around. DD did so, because she knows if she interrupts she gets in trouble and as a result she wet her pants! To the point that she left a big puddle on the floor and it ran down her legs and into her shoes!
Well, as soon as she was able she asked to go to the bathroom and she says she spent about 10 minutes in there trying to dry her pants off with toilet paper and cleaning herself up.
She was so embarrassed with what happened she didn't tell her teacher, or anyone else about it all day until she saw me. By that point in time she was so upset about it she had made herself sick to her stomach!
So not only did she wet herself, but she also then spent the rest of the day in wet clothes!
What 2nd grade teacher makes kids so afraid of asking to go to the bathroom that they feel that they have no choice but to pee their pants rather than interrupt?!?!?!
DH and I already feel that this teacher is trying to "prove" to us that DD is not "as gifted as we think she is" (despite all the test results and obviousness of it). We are also beginning to feel that she is deliberately being unfair to DD because DD is not fitting her idea of what a gt kid is.
An example of this is that earlier this week, DD had to redo homework that she had done quickly and messy. Now, I agree that it was too messy, but she was required to redo the answers as well, even though they were not wrong - just not up to the level the teacher was expecting from DD. At the same time however, DD heard the teacher telling another student that his paper was too messy too, but that he was not required to redo his work, just be more neat next time. And, most of the class had gotten one of the questions wrong but noone else was required to redo the work. DD was very upset that she was being picked on by the teacher because she was the only one who had to redo the work.
DH and I are at the point that we think DD needs to be changed to another room, but don't know how to approach the subject with DD, who will be very upset if she is moved to another class. (She will think she is being punished, rather than being taken out of a bad situation
)
Any ideas/thoughts/comments on what we should do?
Thanks for listening!
