We met with the music teacher today. The meeting went as well as we thought it would, which was not well at all. The title of this post was something he said to me as an attempt to befriend me. He then tried to tell me about a Jewish song he had written based on some psalm or other. I explained nicely that I had no knowledge of the psalms and that the only Jewish people I'd known in High School were my family. This was at the end of the meeting, but the entire thing had been a disaster, so it only amused me when he pulled it out of his "diversity" hat. Earlier in the meeting he had called Wendall "brother" and told him that it was great to see an African American doing so well.
The only good thing that came of the meeting was that the teacher had a minder, and the minder was visibly surprised by what she saw and heard. She rolled her eyes repeatedly and was friendly towards us the entire time, even asking him questions before we could. I know that he will never understand that what he did was wrong, but she did, and I think that she will give a full report to the principal. She did promise to find an official complaint form for us to fill out, and seemed willing to work with us until we are satisfied.
I made sure to let them both know that this was the latest in a line of things that I see as problems with the school. I also let them know that I would be attending PTO meetings and any advisory meeting I could find regarding the school. We were also very clear tat we had shared this story with fellow parents, and that we were letting people know how unhappy we are with the situation.
So that's it for the time being. The form should be in our hands within the next week. I will get the chance to introduce myself to the principal at the PTO meeting tomorrow night, and the fight will get to continue. This is not how I wanted to spend the boy's first grade year, but it is keeping me busy.
2 comments:
I do so wish we weren't so far away from each other. Half a world away and fighting similar battles. A word of caution - do not have great expectations for the PTO! Unfortunately it seems that the PTO often becomes the grown-up version of yet another high school clique. They form groups and are less than welcoming and often exclusionary. And if you happen to be the lone voice you will get stared at as if you have five heads! I took my own PTO on regarding their refusal to pay for background checks for parent volunteers. In a school district where 1/3 of our student population lives below the poverty line the response was, "we're not going to pay for these volunteers so they can have an extra $15 that month to go out to eat." Our school district used to fund the checks but cut them out due to a monetary crisis. My PTO is way more interested in making sure the teachers have scented hand lotion, catered luncheons and an end of year carnival which the kids have to pay to attend/play. I've tried with these folks for two years and am officially done. I'm working with the Principal to start an after school chess/checkers club and kids book club. You know - some free and educational programs since the only after school programs we have currently (sponsored by the PTO) are fee based! My hope for you is to have a totally different experience but in case it is less than rewarding - you are not alone! We just got Colin's report card and I was less than amused to find that they continue to put his reading level at U+ which has been that way since second quarter of first grade. The response is, "we've tested him as far as our tests go at this level". So get another test from the other schools idiots!"We're not sure where he is because I don't have a test that goes for him".Find one!His teacher will be in for an earful at our conference as I specifically mentioned the reading level issue at our start of the year meeting. I just don't get the laziness. I do my part. We are involved parents who try to stimulate our son. It's not like we don't send him to school prepared so I do expect the teacher to be his advocate as well.She should want to know his level so she can give him adequate materials which would mean he spent less time sitting bored at his desk!Someone asked me the other day why I don't volunteer more at the school and I said, "well, the background check issue aside I need to spend all my time trying to make sure that my son gets a decent education while being challenged in some way"!It sure does take a lot of time.I'm hoping that I get this school knocked into shape before Lila goes there or that she just isn't as bright as Colin (which preliminary behaviors indicate well may be the case!).At least she's cute.Maybe we'll get rich and private school will become a possibility.So sad to feel like giving up on the public school system so early.Power to the mothers.I love you!
I have a photo of Isaac Mizrahi on my desk - I think he's Jewish ... does this count?
(ha, ha)
-deb
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