Putting your kids in a new school because they have a bad teacher?

[bluestateguy]

I don't have kids, so I pick up things here and there about parenting from talking to my cousins and my next door neighbors.

My neighbors' son apparently has a bad teacher (4th grade). The boy and the teacher are just not clicking, and as they explain it, she is unprofessional, unhelpful and plays favorites with the children. Apparently some of the other parents have similar gripes. My neighbors' efforts to get their son transferred to another class failed, as they learned that there is already a long waiting list of parents who want to get their kids out of this teacher's class too! So they have had enough. Next week, their son will be starting a new school. A private school. Must be nice when you have the resources to just be able to do that.

Anyhow, how often does this happen? It's a pretty drastic step, don't you think? Yanking your child out of a school altogether because the teacher is the shitz.

[Horse with no Name]

1. Not drastic at all.

In fact, not all of the bullies in school are students. Truth.

This age is so important in the foundation of their education. To lose a year because a teacher is treating a child unfairly gives a distinct disadvantage to that child...especially when these are the core years that they are taught "the test".

Fortunately, this child's parents have the resources to remedy their issues, unfortunately, most others do not.

I hope this kid likes his new digs.

[Kalidurga]

2. The best protests are the ones when you can use your feet..

it really is too bad most people can't afford the option of private school, but some places do have school choice, so maybe the other parents could use that option...

[brewens]

3. Is it possible this teacher is tough and the kids that are "favorites"

are the ones doing well because their parents are involved with their school work at home? I remember getting stuck with a mean teacher that no one liked. My parents expected me to gut it out and get good grades anyway. She ended up being one of my favorites. She's really a nice old lady now.

[seabeyond]

5. that is how we deal with a teacher the kids don't like. nt

[seabeyond]

4. i didnt yank, but i did pull kids out of a private school middle of school year, cause it was no

longer an healthy environment. kids had been going to a private christian for about four years. about spring of 2004 it started getting tough. very fundamental. lots of christian coalition going on at that time. i shouldnt have started the fall at that school. i couldnt get them in the public i wanted so i held off. it wasnt a good decision and by nov i needed to pull them out. too many issues for them to deal with, that they should not have been dealing with. (had noting to do with bad teachers)

it all worked out well.

since they have been in public, they have had a few teacher that rubbed them the wrong grade. they have to deal with it and be successful, regardless. we often have to interact with people we dont particularly like.

this family did what they thought they needed to do.

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. Possessing a credential doesn't make one a "Teacher" any more than possessing a driver's license

makes one a race car driver.

I say this as someone who taught for 10 years, and as a parent.

We are given but one chance in this life... one go around with no second chances. At that young age, impressions shape outlooks.

Drastic? I think not. My Daughter, who will someday be my Son, went to a private school. A Christian school. It wasn't really a hard decision to make. Given where we lived and the quality of the schools in the district, we simply gave her her own choice... go from the daycare facility she had attended since she was two years old (which was a church five doors from where we lived) to a public school, or stay there and go to school with children she grew up with. She chose to stay. The money we spent on her daycare was simply used to pay for her tuition at the school. It wasn't like it was a new expense. After middle school, she wanted to go to a public high school. We said no problem.

Being a gay teenager, she hated public school from DAY ONE. She gutted it out though, and graduated with honors. At the Nazarene school, she was accepted for who she was. At the public high school, not so much. To this day she goes to youth meetings at the Nazarene Church every Wednesday night and supports the kids struggling with their place in the world.

She's 20 years old now, and inspires me to no end. I credit her teachers and advisors at the Nazarene school for the person she is today and so does she. She was treated with love and care whereas public school kids are classified, cliqued, and divided.

Public school isn't the be-all and end-all where education is concerned. Calling oneself a teacher doesn't necessarily make it so.

Kudos to your neighbors for making the sacrifice of spending out of pocket money to ensure their child has a good educational experience. Like I said, there is only one chance. It's not possible to return to a younger age and try over.

[pnwmom]

11. I'm so glad your daughter found the right place for her.

Not every private school would be any more welcoming than the public school. I'm very glad hers was.

[exboyfil]

7. I did the same thing last year with my daughter

She was scheduled to have a poor English teacher for 7th grade. She operates at a very high verbal level so I elected to Homeschool her in English and Social Studies. I continued to do the same this year. I was fortunate that both my daughters had fairly good to excellent teachers in elementary, but I would not have hesitated to pull them out and Homeschool them if necessary. I probably would go the private school route though because I could not Homeschool an elementary child because of work schedule. A middle school child is different though especially my daughters who do very well in academics and have a love of learning. I do not claim that Homeschooling is a better option in all cases, but it worked very well in my case, and I appreciate having the option to pursue it. My childrens' education is ultimately my responsibility.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. My parents did that to me in Grade 8

Teacher went on maternity leave, replacement was demonstratively incompetent and had serious rage issues. My mother confronted the teacher over an exam where answers that were obviously correct had been marked wrong and she called my mother a cunt, tore up the exam and pushed her, the school refused to do anything and they pulled me out since they didn't want me in the same room as somebody so volatile and crazy. A short time later the psycho was arrested after an altercation with another woman in the May Company at South Coast Plaza over a $4 clearance bra... or so the story went at the time.

This woman didn't need anger management classes, she needed a frontal lobotomy.

[pnwmom]

10. Good for your parents. n/t

[pnwmom]

9. I wish I'd done that for one of my sons.

He wasn't a complainer, so I didn't realize how bad things were. This first year teacher (a former security guard), would give negative marks if a child asked a question the teacher thought s/he shouldn't ask. Two of these marks meant missing recess. (One day 12 girls got these marks for asking the wrong questions in math class.) The teacher also required students to stay in at recess and recopy their work if he thought it wasn't neat enough the first time. My son, who has dysgraphia, missed most recesses that way.

Though I didn't know the extent of this teacher's nastiness, I had seen enough that I tried to get my son moved into another class; but I ran into the same problem as in the OP -- the principal didn't want to start a mass exodus.

My son still bears some scars from that year. He would have been better off if I'd moved him -- a year is a long time in a kid's life.

[newfie11]

12. I think that is a very good idea

1 bad teacher can have a negative impact on a child. 4th grade is a tough grade anyway.

I would have moved my son to another school to get him out of the first grade teacher he had. I didn't need to as the principal moved him into another teachers room. One we requested.

[Uben]

13. We changed schools for our daughter

The school she was in sucked. They had a poor assessment by the state. She transferred to another school and the result was outstanding! She went from a marginal student to the A/B honor roll. I just wished we had done it a little sooner.