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WaPo: Three-year-old suspended from Arlington preschool for too many potty accidents
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Anonymous
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Three-year-old suspended from Arlington preschool for too many potty accidents
By Brigid Schulte Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 30, 2011; 12:56 AM Zoe Rosso, who is 3 years old, likes to bake brownies with her mom, go to tumbling class and make up elaborate worlds with tiny plastic animals and dolls. Like many children her age, she sometimes has difficulty making it to the toilet on time. That's why she was suspended from her preschool. For a month. [ Edited to comply with copyright laws. ] |
Anonymous
| They don't accept - and aren't prepared for - kids that aren't potty-trained. This kid wS not potty-trained, so they told him he wasn't ready and to try again in a month. I don't see the big deal. |
Anonymous
| Agree with pp |
Anonymous
| If the little girl wasn't reliably potty trained, they should have found a different program from the get go. My kids went to AUCP which never has a potty training requirement, but which doesn't offer full time care. I'm not surprised that she is having an easier time staying dry in the new program, if they are working on it there are probably more reminders, also way less stress. In a Montessori there may not have been a schedule that involved bathroom visits and kids may have gotten caught up in working on projects for a long period of time, making them more reluctant to go to the bathroom. Montessori in general pushes very early potty training. Not realistic for many kids. Last year in one of my kids' K classes, several kids had one or two accidents. That's why they require you to send in extra clothes. Those kids are 2-3 years older. |
Anonymous
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I feel for her - I can imagine how ashamed she must feel even before that one teacher decided to shame her further by announcing the number of accidents in front of everyone. And of course, once a kid has a label, like "the kid who has accidents" I'm sure she picks up on the teachers' negativity toward her and that just makes it worse.
That said, although she was partially toilet trained, it doesn't sound like she was fully toilet trained, or maybe she was, but is a very sensitive kid and couldn't handle transitions well. Lots of kids have accidents, lots of kids older than 3 have accidents at school, and I do wonder what else was at play here since I've never heard of any other kid being asked to leave a school due to multiple accidents (and I know of one child who really had problems, much much worse than Zoe, and the school worked with him and his parents the entire school year to remedy things - and this child was 4, not 3). |
Anonymous
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Embarassing the child, is not good
Asking her to go to a different school, is ok if they specified potty training originally... |
Anonymous
But that was at a different school. Her mom pulled her out because of it (rather than talking to the school about it) and put her in the APS preschool, which is not equipped for kids who still aren't PT. I wish the Post would stop running front-page articles on parents with issues. (Baby breastfed by wrong mom, dad angry about robocall, mom who doesn't look into whether school requires kids to be fully PT) |
jsteele
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Site Admin Offline
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Brigid Schulte, the author of this article, posted a message here last week asking if anyone else had had their child kicked out of preschool as a result of accidents. The reaction from DCUM users was to question whether the child had, in fact, been potty-trained. This apparently upset the mother and Brigid asked me to remove the message thread. But, seeing the comments on the Post website, I think DCUM was largely restrained in comparison. If the DCUM comments gave the mother pause about the wisdom of the article, she probably should have followed her instincts.
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Anonymous
Yes, it was a different school, but she went straight from that situation into another one that was also causing stress about having accidents. |
Anonymous
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First of all, how can an article about "potty training" be on the front page of a national newspaper next to the coverage of events in Egypt? Are these two problems of the same importance and caliber to deserve the front page of The Washington Post?
Second, as a mother of two children attending Arlington County Public Schools Montessori Program, I am completely outraged at Zoe Rosso's mother and the writer Brigid Schulte coming forward with this article - BEFORE ANY CHILD ENTERS THE PROGRAM THE PARENTS ARE PLAINLY INFORMED THAT THE CHILD HAS TO BE TOTALLY POTTY TRAINED - NO EXCEPTIONS! And that is also the rule of the private Montessori Schools in Arlington that I know of (like, for example, Chesterbrook). Therefore, it sounds like Zoe was not completely potty trained when she entered the program. And that the mother was hoping that Zoe would accomplish the potty training requirement while still attending school. Since, obviously, that did not happen by December (and let's give Claremont School credit for being patient - most programs would have not waited that long), Zoe was asked to leave the program for a month. That is also very considerate of Claremont - most schools would have asked to leave for good knowing that there is a long list of applicants waiting to be admitted! To my opinion, the actions of Zoe's mother, Betsy Rosenblatt Rosso, and the Washington Post writer, Brigid Schulte, by putting this ill constructed and poorly supported by evidence article in the national newspaper are "mildly" irresponsible - they attach a bad name to a program and the school system that are one of the best in the country and diminish the importance of The Washington Post. |
Anonymous
| Geez, it seems that a teacher announcing that your child has had accidents is nothing compared to having it published on the front page of the Washington Post! |
Anonymous
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Kids have to be potty trained before they go into preschool! Was this arlicle supposed to get people mad at the school because the girl was suspended because she wasn't potty trained? That's absurd! A preschool staff is not a daycare staff- they are not equipped to be changing diapers. Additionally, many people who work in a preschool, or any other grade, are not going to be comfortable coming into contact with any childs private area.
Pe |
Anonymous
| Honestly, it sounds like Zoe's mom is one of those nightmare school parents who expects everything to go her child's way. Since her child is only 3 and not potty trained, why not wait until next year to send her to preschool. Sounds like Day care is the best option for Zoe right now. |
Anonymous
Thank you for capturing my exact thoughts! |
Anonymous
Brigid Schulte here. Actually, I asked DC Urban Moms what preschools in the area expected of kids. The suspension seemed harsh to me, but my kids are older and I'm not as in touch with the preschool world now as I was several years ago. My apologies if I didn't make that clearer in my query. DC Urban Moms has enormous reach and I have found it to be an invaluable resource in hearing a wide variety of views, opinions and experiences. When I write about family and cultural issues, these are the voices I want to hear. Some of the responses to my preschool query were very helpful. And many emailed me privately with stories that helped inform my writing and reporting. For this, I am truly grateful. I did ask Jeff to remove the query, however, when the bulk of the comments became judgmental, the mother felt they were largely attacking her and several were just plain mean. I mentioned in my post that my own son wasn't potty trained until 4, despite my best, albeit misguided efforts (the bathroom looked like a toy store, targets in the potty for peeing, potty books, videos, etc.) and that this was never an issue in his preschool or others in the area with which I was familiar. When the comments veered toward "typical Post" - I thought - huh? |