UGGGG - School Issues - WWYD

[Parksfamily5]

People that think their kid should get an A or the lead in the school play because they pay tuition are idiots. They would be idiots no matter where their kids went to school.

I plan to send my DS to parochial school and I plan to be his advocate. I would certainly threaten to pull him (and his tuition check) from the school if he was in a classroom with a verbally abusive teacher. I plan to send him to a private school because I believe they teach to a higher standard. They should be held to that standard as well, and if they don't reach it, I have the right to pull my kid out. Sorry, but public and parochial school are totally different animals. IMO, Parents do get some say for paying that tuition..

I am not totally agreeing with this statement.

 

[JerseyMamaBear]

best of luck to your family, I hope all goes well in the end.

 

[princessmom29]

I am not totally agreeing with this statement.

I depends on the school I would think. I thonk it is totally true of the catholic and episcopal schools in our area along with the prep schools without religious affiliation, but not the some of the others affiliated with baptist and assembly of god churches. Not making a religious judgement at all, but that is what i observed in general here looking for school for DD. We ended up at a local episcopal school for this year. I teach in public school so the decision was a tough one for me to make. I feel like she is gonig to get a better education at the pirvate school at least in the early grades. The children must test at a cretian level to be admitted to the school at any grade, but my DD is ggoing into K and there was a very comprehensive readiness test. You must score at least 75 to even be considered. This was one of the big things that i looked for in a school b/c my sister teaches public K and has kids that are reading and can add and subtract in the same room with kids that do not know their colors and cannot even sing their ABC's, much less recognize a letter. Our public schools also give system wide CRT's every quarter, and the teachers are reprimanded for low scores, sp what often ends up happening is that the kids that can already do the things on the test get pushed aside so that the weak ones can be caught up. I didn't want this to happen to DD so we opten for a school where the kids are on a pretty level playing field. I guess what i am trying to say is that the quality of schools public or private is so variable from area to area that it is really hard to say as a whole who has higher standards. In our area it is definitely the private schools, but where DH grew up it was public schools.

 

[badblackpug]

I think you made the right choice given what you have told us. Have another "face to face" with the principal. As a PP said, do not sugar coat your feelings about this teacher and make sure you report exactly what you have witnessed. Do not "nice it up." ...but if you feel that strongly against this teacher you have to be ready and willing to remove your children, even if it means eating the $400.

Public, private and parochial schools vary from area to area. Remember that most parochial schools do not require the education and certifications that all public schools require. In my area the public schools far outrank the parochial schools, which are all christian based, anyway, so that wouldn't work for us, so it would be a colossal waste of money to even consider them. As for private schools, there are only 2 that are within driving distance, and they are 30 minutes and 45 minutes away respectively. The second only offers high school, so that is out. The 1st, which would be lovely, has tuition costs of $7500/yr for K, $10,000/yr for primary, $15,000/yr for middle, and $20,000/yr for upper school. At this juncture I would be paying $55,000 a year for tuition! I think I'll save my money for college!

 

[NYCDiane]

Sounds like the teacher is not the only problem that school has. How can one teacher be creative and the other writes papers all day? Don't they have to have the same curriculum?

There are different ways of teaching --- one teacher may teach the same exact subject & material by using text books, papers, writing, tests. Another teacher may use projects, field trips, hands-on, movies, etc....

I find the more creative the teaching, the more a child will learn and, more importantly, RETAIN.

 

[disneyandme]

So what happened?

 

[tiggertabi]

One last piece of advice: if there is any chance your child will be in this teacher's class, do not talk negatively about the teacher in front of your child. This will only make matters worse.

I wanted to definitely agree with this. I was new to the school this year. I had a student who told me her mom said that we could do whatever we wanted because I "didn't know the rules of the school.." I set her straight, of course. I think, though, that even if the child gets this teacher, you need to be on the side of their education! Work with the teacher, try to make sure that your child knows that you and the teacher are a team to try to get them to learn. There's nothing worse than having a student who's parents don't care or are bitter, because they carry that elitist attitude into the classroom and get NOTHING done. Then there is a cycle where the teacher has to have a lot of discipline for that student and the parent will seem to be prove right about their suspicions? I hope everything works out for the best.

 

[disneyandme]

Any update or are we out of luck?

 

[Gabes_mommy]

I went to the same private school for K-12 and I had the worst teacher for 5th grade - the absolute worst! She hated me (for no apparent reason) and made no effort to hide it - I was 10. She did some really awful things to me - things no 10 year old should have to suffer through. I wish so much that my parents had advocated for me and not let me be in her class. A few years after I had her she was left go by the school finally.

It may seem extreme, but I absolutely agree with the PPs who said to pull your kids out of the school.

 

[teacher100]

So how did it go?

 

[Mickey2903]

Did you get the teacher you wanted?

 

[purplebelle]

Ugh...I think it's unacceptable for someone to not respond to emails. That is very frustrating to hear.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

A lot of threads are never resolved, so sometimes I make up endings to threads...

A possible ending:

Hello, all, OP here (not really). I haven't posted because after getting no resolution from the school we decided to go the Luddite route, and have been concentrating for the past month on removing ourselves completely from "the grid" and civilized society.

We now have the computer hooked up to a windmill but since it hasn't been windy I haven't been able to post.

Our update is that we've pulled our kids from the school and have started our own school! It's called the Guaranteed School For Twins. It features an online teacher selection system where you can build your own perfect teacher, Mr. Potato Head Style, for each course.

There is also a special event before the end of each semester called "Least Popular Teacher Walks The Plank". Yep, this year we anticipate that cranky Mrs. Bronksy will be taking the long walk off a short pier.

Because of the issues with the erratic windpower, we've also instituted a new PE class called "Fun With Giant Hamster Wheels"! Each child will be given their own human-scale hamster wheel to run on for an hour each day, thus generating the needed power for the school.

Next year with our anticipated school's expansion we'll be offering core courses like "Digging Latrines 101", "How To Badger a Principal To Tears", and "Favoritism: When It IS All About Me".

Ok, this is all in fun, and I'll probably end up with cranky Mrs. Bronsky for my own kids this year (we find out on saturday what the class assignments are and the neighborhood's all abuzz), but I just thought it'd be a silly way to end a stressed out thread since the real OP has apparently bowed out

 

[stitchlovestink]

A lot of threads are never resolved, so sometimes I make up endings to threads...

A possible ending:

Hello, all, OP here (not really). I haven't posted because after getting no resolution from the school we decided to go the Luddite route, and have been concentrating for the past month on removing ourselves completely from "the grid" and civilized society.

We now have the computer hooked up to a windmill but since it hasn't been windy I haven't been able to post.

Our update is that we've pulled our kids from the school and have started our own school! It's called the Guaranteed School For Twins. It features an online teacher selection system where you can build your own perfect teacher, Mr. Potato Head Style, for each course.

There is also a special event before the end of each semester called "Least Popular Teacher Walks The Plank". Yep, this year we anticipate that cranky Mrs. Bronksy will be taking the long walk off a short pier.

Because of the issues with the erratic windpower, we've also instituted a new PE class called "Fun With Giant Hamster Wheels"! Each child will be given their own human-scale hamster wheel to run on for an hour each day, thus generating the needed power for the school.

Next year with our anticipated school's expansion we'll be offering core courses like "Digging Latrines 101", "How To Badger a Principal To Tears", and "Favoritism: When It IS All About Me".

Ok, this is all in fun, and I'll probably end up with cranky Mrs. Bronsky for my own kids this year (we find out on saturday what the class assignments are and the neighborhood's all abuzz), but I just thought it'd be a silly way to end a stressed out thread since the real OP has apparently bowed out

Now actually that was really kinda funny Kickapoo.
I remember reading this thread, but don't think I ever posted to it.
Remember your sense of humor everyone.
And yes I did have the AWFUL teacher experience for older DD when she was in 4th grade. It was bad enough, that even the principal agreed that it was not the right classroom for her and moved her in early Feb (which set a precident for him. ) He only moved like 4 kids all year in an elem school of 950+. 2 were moved the first week and 3rd one was moved in the 1st mo., just to show how we rarely bended. And he did NOT accept requests at all. Actually, if you requested you could pretty much guarantee that you WOULD NOT get that teacher.. Glad I'm done w/ that school..

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

A lot of threads are never resolved, so sometimes I make up endings to threads...

A possible ending:

Hello, all, OP here (not really). I haven't posted because after getting no resolution from the school we decided to go the Luddite route, and have been concentrating for the past month on removing ourselves completely from "the grid" and civilized society.

We now have the computer hooked up to a windmill but since it hasn't been windy I haven't been able to post.

Our update is that we've pulled our kids from the school and have started our own school! It's called the Guaranteed School For Twins. It features an online teacher selection system where you can build your own perfect teacher, Mr. Potato Head Style, for each course.

There is also a special event before the end of each semester called "Least Popular Teacher Walks The Plank". Yep, this year we anticipate that cranky Mrs. Bronksy will be taking the long walk off a short pier.

Because of the issues with the erratic windpower, we've also instituted a new PE class called "Fun With Giant Hamster Wheels"! Each child will be given their own human-scale hamster wheel to run on for an hour each day, thus generating the needed power for the school.

Next year with our anticipated school's expansion we'll be offering core courses like "Digging Latrines 101", "How To Badger a Principal To Tears", and "Favoritism: When It IS All About Me".

Ok, this is all in fun, and I'll probably end up with cranky Mrs. Bronsky for my own kids this year (we find out on saturday what the class assignments are and the neighborhood's all abuzz), but I just thought it'd be a silly way to end a stressed out thread since the real OP has apparently bowed out

Thanks for lightening my mood today. Training at work is taking it's toll on me (whole new computer system in one month). I really needed that laugh. You really should write a book.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I'd been thinking about this and was just checking in to see if there's an update....

 

[surfergirl602]

When my daughter was in 1st grade, she got the "bad teacher". Everyone told me to pull her out and get her in a different class... so many kids regressed in her class, etc. Horrible things. I din't pull her out... and my daughter loved her. She did very well in her class and I was glad that I kept her in the class. Yes, the teacher was very flighty, and the concerns were that she wasn't strong in reading, etc, but my DD is a very good reader and did well in the class. We were sorry to leave her class half way though when we had to move due to the Army. The school where we are now is a far cry from what we had before in NY.

 

[tinkermom23]

Is the OP coming back to update us? is it possible she forgot about us Disser's out here, waiting patiently while the childs' education hangs in the balance... whtever could have happened to the OP???
Kickapoo... any other ideas???

 

[surfergirl602]

Is the OP coming back to update us? is it possible she forgot about us Disser's out here, waiting patiently while the childs' education hangs in the balance... whtever could have happened to the OP???
Kickapoo... any other ideas???

there seem to be many threads where the OP leaves us begging for an update that we'll never see. Alas... happens all too often these days. sigh.

 

[hippiechicken]

Maybe the teacher and the OP became friends and went to Disney!