So, there I was, getting all worked up about the injustice of it all. Put more accurately, between my house-buying induced stress, my PMT-induced homone levels, my (self-inflicted) lack of sleep and the school issue, I was just about finished.
I spent much of the past week ranting about how unjust it was that my child's reading group were getting one less book per week than some other children in the year, leaving her bored with the same old books. I even sent in my long-suffering husband who chatted to the classroom assistant. She denied that others were reading 2 books a week, which incensed and confused me: Surely she could have admitted it?!
Our daughter (aged 6) picked up on some of our frustration and decided to help (I am obviously not as discreet as I ought to be!). So, she told the teacher that we thought her books should be harder. The teacher responded by writing a moody, patronising note in the communication book, explaining why she should not be reading harder books. Great!
We then wrote a (very) long, polite, explanatory note, saying that there had been a misunderstanding: She did once read a very easy book, but we were happy with the level of her books generally. We merely wanted everyone to be able to read the same amount of books every week. That would be fair. Also, perhaps our daughter's in the wrong group. I spent the next couple of days dreading the teacher's response - what if she dragged me into the classroom and shouted at me for questioning her methods?
Then today, looking through our child's communication book, a sinking feeling set in: I counted the books the teacher and we had commented on every week. For the past couple of weeks, our daughter had read just as many as (perhaps) everybody else: 3. Oops. Because I had not noticed that the teacher only ever comments on one book per week, I had only been counting those she did comment on.
Having admitted the mistake to my friends, what else do I plan to do? What any responsible adult would do, of course: Tear - out - our - note - in - the - book.........and if it does turn out that the teacher has already read it and just failed to comment? Well, I shall just have to tell her the truth: That, clearly, I am a twonk. Who can't count......
I spent much of the past week ranting about how unjust it was that my child's reading group were getting one less book per week than some other children in the year, leaving her bored with the same old books. I even sent in my long-suffering husband who chatted to the classroom assistant. She denied that others were reading 2 books a week, which incensed and confused me: Surely she could have admitted it?!
Our daughter (aged 6) picked up on some of our frustration and decided to help (I am obviously not as discreet as I ought to be!). So, she told the teacher that we thought her books should be harder. The teacher responded by writing a moody, patronising note in the communication book, explaining why she should not be reading harder books. Great!
We then wrote a (very) long, polite, explanatory note, saying that there had been a misunderstanding: She did once read a very easy book, but we were happy with the level of her books generally. We merely wanted everyone to be able to read the same amount of books every week. That would be fair. Also, perhaps our daughter's in the wrong group. I spent the next couple of days dreading the teacher's response - what if she dragged me into the classroom and shouted at me for questioning her methods?
Then today, looking through our child's communication book, a sinking feeling set in: I counted the books the teacher and we had commented on every week. For the past couple of weeks, our daughter had read just as many as (perhaps) everybody else: 3. Oops. Because I had not noticed that the teacher only ever comments on one book per week, I had only been counting those she did comment on.
Having admitted the mistake to my friends, what else do I plan to do? What any responsible adult would do, of course: Tear - out - our - note - in - the - book.........and if it does turn out that the teacher has already read it and just failed to comment? Well, I shall just have to tell her the truth: That, clearly, I am a twonk. Who can't count......
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