Last night, my dear daughter came home and, as usual, we were talking about her day at school. She was quite upset with her English teacher and it took me quite a while to coax the reason why out of her. Apparently, while there was a lull in her lesson with said teacher, dear daughter had started doodling in her English workbook. Now, fair enough, she shouldn’t have been doing that and paying attention and she admitted that she should have been paying attention.
What the teacher said to her though has riled me up something awful and as I have a meeting with the school tomorrow over my daughter’s inclusion in the Gifted and Talented program, I’m looking forward to pointing out how stupid said teacher has been.
Upon noticing that dear daughter was doodling away, the teacher told her that she was never going to pass her English GCSE at the required level (hah! As if I don’t work with her at home!) and that art was for stupid people. I thought that maybe she was exaggerating a little but I’ve received confirmation from my her friends that the teacher DID say that.
Now, when you’re teaching in a school that is an ART college, and has a world renowned artist amongst its former pupils, saying that art is for stupid people makes you look ridiculous. This is without mentioning that my daughter is one of the best artists (her teacher’s words, not mine) in the school, and is about to start running an art class in how to draw anime and manga (japanese graphic novel forms for the uninitiated) even though she’s only in year 8.
I really hope that this teacher holds a specialised degree in English because if she doesn’t, I’m going to rip her to shreds. Verbally of course, I’m not evil. Unfortunately for this teacher, both myself and my husband hold degrees in history and politics and we learnt the fine arts of persuasion and rhetoric (we know how to twist words), so unless she has a damn good reason for making the school, and my daughter look silly, I’m going to enjoy pulling her apart.
We’re talking about a girl who loves reading and indeed, read both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at the age of ten, who knows who Shakespeare is and some of his works (I admit, I try not to foist classics on her too often) and she regularly raids my bookshelf for novels by Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings and whoever else I happen to have lazing around in the pit that is my book collection (I’m beginning to think L-Space is in the real world considering how many I have).
I very, very rarely get annoyed with my daughter’s school, they’ve done some fine work getting my daughter back on track after she started going bonkers because she was held back with the rest of the class, but I won’t stand by and let them make her feel like she’s five inches tall.
Wish me luck.
What an awful thing for the teacher to say. Good luck. I hope the teacher was just having a bad day and isn’t usually like this. Smashing people’s dreams is not nice.
I’d like to think that the teacher was having a bad day, but this is the second time that this teacher has said something to my daughter that isn’t really appropriate. We’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow, I guess.
On the plus side (in a cheeky way), my daughter didn’t miss a beat and said, ‘I bite my thumb at you madam,’ and promptly got detention for being cheeky in Shakesperian. Good on her, I say!
I’ll have to remember her response
I feel for teachers, but if this is a pattern then that is not good.
If it’s a pattern, then that teacher’s in the wrong job. I wonder how many other kids she’s put down and they haven’t spoken up?
That is a concern for sure. Some students may not have advocates to stand up for them.
What B.S.!
Before speaking with your daughter’s teacher, try googling “doodling helps you pay attention” and see what you come up with. Research shows it can actually help you focus. My guess is this may be what your daughter was doing at the time, not that she was doing it in defiance.
I have always been this way. It DOES help me pay attention better. In fact, I also REMEMBER better too. I can look at old doodles and remember that day and even what I heard when I doodled certain parts of my drawing. I’m not an artist, I just do simple geometric shapes and patterns, but it’s always helped me focus.
I actually got chewed out once in a meeting by a horrible boss because I did this during a meeting. She thought I wasn’t taking her seriously and said something like, “And you’re just sitting there, DOODLING!” She took it as disrespect and I told her that it helps me focus. She didn’t believe me. She continued — and I kept doodling unconsciously. She flipped!
I ended up quitting right after that meeting, btw. Other more linear types don’t get us creative folks. A teacher of all people should be educated about how different people learn, pay attention, etc. Maybe you can be the one to give your daughter’s teacher a lesson
I certainly hope so! They cancelled at the last minute and re-arranged for next week, grr. At least I know now, that my daughter isn’t alone