Days Of Our Lives - The Coordinator From Hell... Part 2

I'm going to preface this by saying, I am usually pretty level headed about most things, and I deal with them in a sometimes unsettlingly calm manner. And if my friends are any indication, I also give fairly good advice. Unless you mess with my daughter. Or the rest of my family. Or my friends. Or me. But mostly Tomika. 'Nuff said.

I originally had this post as a reply to the nice comments I received on my previous post, but it got WAAYY to long, so now it's here instead. If you don't know what I'm harping on about, you can go here to catch up.

Go on. I'll wait.

All good?

Okay then, moving on.

Thank you everyone all for your lovely comments and emails. It's great to get some feedback from other Mums on this issue. I was up all night after sending the email to Tomika's Coordinator, thinking, "Oh God, what have I done!"

It just really annoyed me that she was so condescending in her reply to my (initial) very polite email about the third new teacher for not only one subject, but three, being Science/Math/Health (same teacher), in three months, and my concern that Tomika was having trouble understanding her. These are critical subjects in her education, herein lies my problem.

I have met this coordinator woman once before at Parent Teacher interviews, and she had nothing good to say about Tomika at all. In fact I got the feeling that she just didn't like her, and she's not even one of her teachers! That's HER problem though, NOT Tomika's. If, however, I find out that my child is being discriminated against because of this woman's opinion or, God forbid, my complaint, she won't have to worry about harmless electronic mail, she'll have to watch her back! *1

The really sad part is that up until recently, Tomika was especially excited to study Science and the many wonderful new avenues the subject was opening up for her. She even went so far as to buy 6 different Science books by Dr Karl out of her own pocket money, before the school year had even started, and she devoured them in a matter of weeks (it took her months to read Twilight). However, that has changed with the commencement of this new teacher. Her interest has waned significantly because of her inability to follow along without huge effort on her behalf. She feels uncomfortable asking questions because then she would have to admit out loud that she can't understand the teacher's accent and, would you believe it, she was trying to spare the teacher's feelings!

I would go in and see the coordinator and the new teacher in person, if I wasn't afraid I might get emotional and bonk them both in the nose! *1

It's bloody frustrating to see Tomika's natural curiosity dampened like that over a stupid staffing issue at her school. You hear about things like this happening all the time, but you never dream that it will happen to you or your child. Tomika didn't have any serious problems at Primary School, aside from the normal testing the boundaries that kids all go through, all her teachers loved her and said she was a great kid who tries her hardest to impress. Possibly too hard in some cases.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no illusions when it comes to my daughter, as anyone who reads this blog can attest. But there are things that you just know about your child, about how far they will go in testing someone, before they are satisfied that they have pushed to the limit. And if I pull her up and question her about something, she usually crumbles into a teary mess and admits what she's done. This time she got upset for a different reason, and I could tell the difference straight away. She was fully indignant that she had been accused of, and punished, for something that wasn't her doing.

Is it any wonder that I'm upset? And now, apparently, I'm also rambling.

Grrr... I can't wait to hear her response!

Stay tuned for the next instalment of Days Of Our Lives. Oh wait... It only feels like I'm in a bad serial TV soap!

__________

*1. Figuratively, not literally. I am actually extremely anti-violence, and quite mild-mannered. Also, infuriatingly, I usually totally back down when confronted by an actual person (hence the email). Give me a pen and paper though, (or in this case, a PC and internet connection) and I will strongly-worded-letter you to death! *2

*2. Well not to death as such .*4 More to distraction. *3

*3. Okay, so maybe not to distraction either. But I'll have a damn good go at annoying you for a minute or two!

*4. I would hate it if someone were to actually die from one of my letters. That would be terrible. Or interesting. A paper cut to the jugular perhaps? Braining themselves on the PC desk? Decisions, decisions... *5

*5. The above point may or may not be a complete lie. Feel free to ignore it at your leisure. Or not. I'm convinced I'm currently totally bonkers and sleep deprived, and I think I'd best take another valium and have a bit of a lie down before I say something completely moronic and undermine all the good I've done in the past 24 hours. Like that. *6

*6. Now I'm confused, what was the question again?