Any Stern Teachers at the Big 3??

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09/22/2009 09:51

Subject: Any Stern Teachers at the Big 3??

Anonymous

OP here.

If you think I have confused 'stern' with 'mean' why not just ask me instead of surmising on your own about what I think and have done?

Here's the definition of stern:
stern1??/st?rn/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [sturn] Show IPA ,
Use stern in a Sentence
See web results for stern
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–adjective, -er, -est. 1. firm, strict, or uncompromising: stern discipline.
2. hard, harsh, or severe: a stern reprimand.
3. rigorous or austere; of an unpleasantly serious character: stern times.
4. grim or forbidding in aspect: a stern face

DC's teacher's tone can be described by DC as falling into numbers 2, 3, or 4. Plus she raised her voice. That is uncalled for to me. It may not be to you, and that's fine, but whether it was appropriate was not what I asked about, remember. I'm paying a lot of money in tuition so that he can get a great education, but not at any cost. I want his education to come with lessons in civility by example. I mean he's not hitting people or breaking things in class. He's not a generally disobedient child. He's intensely curious and this is where he sometimes will explore something and told not to, but he's not a behavior problem.

When I wrote this post I wondered before I hit the 'submit' key how many non-big 3 parents I would hear from. I suspected it could be the vast majority of responders because, like I mentioned before, it's a knee jerk and defensive reaction to try to defend their own schools and their children's teachers and their tolerance of it.

I do apologize for getting really annoyed about that. I've been on DCUM long enough to know that even when an OP is not inviting certain people to respond they will still respond, and there's no way to shut the door on them. They want to steer the discussion to meet their interest in this subject, they are less interested in simply answering your question. So this is why I got so annoyed. And quite frankly, I'm still annoyed because I can't seem to steer this discussion back to my original question which was SOLELY FOR BIG 3 PARENTS AND PARENTS OF GOOD PRIVATE SCHOOLS (Potomac, Maret, Sidwell, GDS..): "How are your children treated at the Big 3 schools? Are there any stern teachers there?"

So - how should I have gotten the discussion to remain with big 3 parents only and get my original question answered in a polite way? How does one ask those who clearly are not big 3 parents to stop checking this post and stop answering, because it keeps detracting from my need to know how children are treated at the big 3. I have a very narrow question which calls for a narrow group of parents to reply. I'm sorry if this makes others feel left out or offended. But there are plenty of other posts for you to chime in about on DCUM.

I have one family that I know has a child at the big 3 and they said if their child was ever spoken to in the way DC was spoken to, they'd be meeting with the teacher pretty quickly. But they said they would address the situation politely and suggest to the teacher better ways to handle such situations in the future. Well, we did precisely that and the case was resolved finally. We are fairly certain it will not happen again. Our friends said such reactions from teachers at the big 3 is unusual, not common, and their child has been at one of the big 3 schools a very long time now.

I do think it very rude for posters that are not asked to respond and for posters to deter the subject away from the OP's question. It happens all too commonly on DCUM and it defeats the very purpose of DCUM. Generally I ignore comments that detract from the subject but when there are so many parents of non-big3 schools or parents who feel defensive and feel the need to reply, it's became very hard to steer this discussion back to the original question. So I suppose I responded to rudeness with equal rudeness in an effort to make those posters realize their replies were unwelcome...because they obviously were not realizing that on their own and ignoring them wasn't helping this post.

But - to those who were indeed parents of the big 3, thank you very much for your thoughtful replies. It did help. I would have liked to have DC apply to the big 3 schools but we live too far away. If we ever move closer to DC I would certainly apply there. I respect the way teachers respect their students.

I know in certain cultures sternness is expected by teachers. This is true in the Asian cultures for sure. Well, I say let it be in Asia, not here at better educational institutions. I have taught DC to question. DC is a highly verbal, curious, and debating kind of kid and never rude. I welcome that. I think it's great for his self esteem and it's a great foundation for higher level thinking. I want his teachers to see the value of that too.