Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments A Dear Teacher... thread

Dear atrocious middle school teacher,

I wonder if you realize the irony in marking children down for failing to turn in homework on time when you cannot answer a direct question on when it will be due or even if the project will be due sometime this week. You are specifically charged with helping them develop academic organizational skills and yet only managed to enter four homeworks into the grade book before it was closed for the quarter. Multiple projects that DD devoted full time to for weeks were never graded, even just for completion, did you notice?

Thank you for dropping her math grade based on grammar, neatness, and decoration in creating restaurant menus and hand puppets. I can see how you didn't see her as a candidate for advanced work, despite perfect scores on the unit pretests, since you misunderstood that the advanced group got automatic 100%s on everything and she hadn't been doing enough coloring. I also appreciate your assertions that candidates for acceleration should be 'some kind of genius' who magically were able to pass a demanding exam without ever having seen the vocabulary before, and that the entire math department is unanimous in believing no one should be accelerated because they all fail. Thankfully we have received a letter from the head of the department stating otherwise.

You have taught DD several important lessons in 'consider the source' and which adults are worthy of respect. I am sure they will stay with her for life. I hope your supervisors are thinking about whether these lessons are on the approved curriculum.

Sincerely,
parent of a child whose success you will never understand

Dear Former English Teacher,

I can never find enough words to thank you for understanding that my daughter is a person, not an age-- and that her asynchrony leads her to see things differently, not better or worse, than her classmates.

Thank you for just-- appreciating her sense of humor, her enthusiasm, and for understanding her quirks as a cheetah, not a border collie. You gave my daughter's writing wings, and taught her to love herself and to embrace hard work. You spoke frankly with her about self-doubt and perfectionism, and even when you didn't understand what she was saying, you respected her completely.

The fact that you encouraged her, and were so appreciative of her quirky enthusiasm, gave her a lifelong love of English Literature and of learning, often while your colleagues were determined to kill it at all costs.

There will never be a way to thank you enough.

By the way, I'm really sorry that the school apparently didn't see your value and canned you abruptly. If not for you, DD would never have graduated with a diploma from this place. We'd never have survived her high school years with this curriculum and mindset. So most of all, thank you for being refreshingly subversive. I'm so sorry that the powers-that-be punish that kind of thing now, but I appreciate your integrity more than you will ever know.

Sincerely,

THAT girl's mom.

Dd4.5 has been very fortunate to have wonderful teachers in her formative years. Her first teacher immediately recognized dd's passion for learning and dd, 3 at that time, just took off. Her pre-k teacher now initially did not seem to get dd at all. I had a very disappointing first parent teacher meet with her. But after I told her how dd was hiding her abilities, she made every effort to encourage dd to show what she knows. She is the one who started the process of getting dd skip kindergarten next year and go straight to first grade. I briefly met with the future first grade teacher who couldn't contain her excitement about having dd in her class next year. I am feeling very happy right now about next year. Thank you teachers for letting dd be a kid but still learn at her pace and level.

Dear first year teacher. Thanks for providing a secure environment for my son to learn an get to grips with his toiletting issues. Thanks for working ds, myself and the public nurse to manage what can be an upsetting medical issue.

Dear second year teacher. DS learned nothing last year and his toiletting issues regressed to pre school level. Thank you for making him so nervous he tried to hold on all day and damaged his bowel further. Thanks for claiming the problem was something he needed to deal with himself and that I wasenabling him. Thanks for refusing to meet with the health nurse and telling the counsellor I was the one with the problem. I can not for the life of me understand why I let my son stay in your class all year. It won't be happening again. The sight of you around the school makes me nauseas.

Puffin, that breaks my heart for you and your DS.

I don't understand why I just let it happen. I think I was just scared of making things worse and perhaps I was having trouble dealing with things too. I did get him out one day a week in the last term. This year is better, he could learn more but he is enjoying his class.

Puffin, hindsight is always 20/20.

Don't 'should on yourself' over this.

I think all of us have things that we wish we'd handled differently if only we'd known then what we know now.

Dear Petty Teacher,

Do you sleep well at night? Are you pleased with yourself? Do you think you proved our daughter is not as smart as she really is by giving her a poor enough grade on her final assignment to drop her an entire letter grade? Does this make you feel vindicated in some way or prove that you are superior to a 10 year old - really!?!

We find it amusing that what you counted as a misspelling on her assignment was not misspelled at all. If you knew how to spell or had actually looked that word up you would have realized our daughter spelled it correctly. I can look it up for you in the dictionary and show you if you need me to. The other things you counted wrong were completely subjective and entirely based on your opinion, which makes it very obvious you are biased against our daughter.

Do you really think we can't see what you are doing and do you really think we will allow you to get away with it?

I'm so incredibly tired of battling you, so we might at well just have it out and get it over with. It is obvious to me that you should go back to teaching remedial classes because you seem to be intimidated by an advanced student.

Sincerely,
Mama Grizzly Bear ********

Now you all need to email these teachers a link to this thread and say "guess which one is for you". (Kidding. Don't actually do this.)

Thank you for posting this! I wondered if that was what happened to DS8's handwriting this year as it became illegible. DS8 and I had a chat after I reviewed last year's handwriting compared to this year. It really is all about expectations.