Sunday, June 22, 2008

Deranged Math Teacher

I just found out from my daughter today that he math teacher was much more abusive than I initally thought she was. Chelsea tells me that the teacher called the kids "bastards" near the end of the school year. Now, that really makes me angry. So, I wrangled the whole story out of her. Seems this teacher asked the kids opinion on something. She asked them what they thought of her teaching. One student spoke up. He called her out on her constant put downs and comparisons. See, Chelsea wasn't in the honors program at Lincoln, mostly because I didn't think she should since it wasthe first year for the program and I didn't think it was well put together (and I was right) and partly because she talked me in to letting her do it near the end of school so she took the test. She didn't get in (sigh of relief on my part) and they stated that it was her inadequate grades that prevented her from entering the program (she made honor roll all year and her friend who didn't make honor roll even once the previous year got in...see, not well thought out). I insisted that they keep her in the accelerated math class since she passed ninth grade math in seventh grade with an A. They did as well as several other kids. They were all taking 10th grade math in 8th grade. This class is the class right below the honors class. This teacher continually compared Chelsea's class to the honors class. She constantly told Chelsea's class that they would never succeed, never be anything or anyone, that they weren't as good as the honors class, that she loved the honors kids and hated Chelsea's class. She was seriously a looney bird. Once when Chelsea and I couldn't figure out her homework she asked the teacher for help. After yelling at Chelsea and making her cry she refused to go over the problem with her. She was loopy! So, Chelsea worked really hard and passed that class with an A this year. Okay, all that to tell you that the boy that stood up to offer his opinion recalled all of these things to the teacher. He reminded her how she'd made Chelsea and several other students cry for asking for help. How she told them continually that they'd never amount to anything, and how she was constantly comparing them to the honors kids and telling the class how much she hated the class. So he put it all out there for her to see. And she got angry. Really angry! She told the class that they were the biggest bunch of heartless bastards she'd ever taught.

Now I didn't know about this until just today.

What do I do about it? It's done. Chelsea will never have this teacher again. Should I let it go and reassure my daughter that the teacher was loopy? I mean, I've never been one to undermine my kids teachers, even when I wasn't fond of them, if they dealt out a discipline to my kids, I made them serve it. I firmly believe in presenting a united front with the teachers. But this is just abusive. I don't think this lady should be teaching kids if she can't control the way she speaks to them. I realize that middle school kids are difficult. But, to ask their opinion then call them names, all of them, when one student offers a fair account of the year? That's just not right. But I just don't know if I should let it go, or bring it up.

I hate these kinds of things. Argh!

2 comments:

Mrs. Aleisha Brixius said...

Oh, my. If it was me I would bring up your concern to the principal. The teacher needs to be watched and needs to know what she did was wrong. Even though she is one of my fellow union members I think it is totally wrong and she should be called on the carpet. Would the principal do anything about it? Why should other students have to deal with her?

Renee said...

Yeah, I thought that might be what I should do. It's reallly got me bothered. Chelsea worked hard in that class and I'm sure other kids did too.

I think I might call over there and see if I can talk to him about it.

I don't know for sure that he'd do anything about it, but he might keep an eye on it. I had heard from other parents that their children had complained about her. Oddly enough, none of the parents were of kids in her honors class. Go figure. LOL