Yes. He was being disruptive, but mainly because he was overwhelmed. Just giving him a little help organizing his materials at the beginning and end of the day was not enough. His IEP specified more. If they couldn't accomodate his SN at the center, they should have told us at the very beginning instead of prolonging the problem.

Why doesn't your DH say something? He's the recipient.

Was your child disruptive to the classroom? Was that the problem?

My son was in 3rd grade in an FCPS AAP center. Although he is intelligent, he also has high functioning autism/ADHD, for which he has an IEP. He was assigned a very inexperienced teacher and he was given minimal special ed. support despite the school's repeated assurances that they were following his IEP. If we had known how bad it would be, we never would have sent him there, although he easily qualified for admission on the basis of his test scores and past academic performance.

So staff wouldn't have to deal with him, they often secluded him in a small, windowless room for most of the day - which just made him angry and even less willing to do his work. The school system is lucky that we didn't sue for violation of IDEA, but we returned him to his base school where he is doing much better. The AAP center was a nightmare.

Anonymous wrote:While the year ended fine and our kid learned and progressed, I was really disappointed when I realized our k teacher had a significant hearing issue. It was not possible to carry on a normal conversation -- at normal conversation levels and expected personal space distance.

So you really haven't had a bad experience in school yet.

That's a big blanket statement- you don;t know what teachers do or wanted to to- perhaps some teachers have a bad temper and figured younger kids would work better than adults? (who could recognize it better as abuse and hopefully block it)

Sad statement if you believe that. I worked with many teachers over the years, I don't believe that at all.

While the year ended fine and our kid learned and progressed, I was really disappointed when I realized our k teacher had a significant hearing issue. It was not possible to carry on a normal conversation -- at normal conversation levels and expected personal space distance.

My lowest moment? When my daughter really, really wanted to be an Indian in the Thanksgiving play in kindergarten, and her teacher told her that she was too fair skinned for that and she had to be a pilgram. She was so mad. I didn't actually totally believe her until I went, and there is was - white kids as pilgrams, and anyone with any brown was an indian. It was like watching everything I didn't believe in play out right in front of my eyes, and we actually changed schools over the christmas break. This was 15 years ago at a small non-DC private school, so hopefully folks have become a little more aware since then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kindergarten at MCPS with 26 kids, no aide, no rotating aide and my child learning nothing but things they learned in preschool. Hanging out with kids that don't speak English. Good times!

Oh, the absolute horror!

Says the person whose kids do not go to school with 2/3 of the class Spanish speaking and 50% FARMS.

Actually my kid does go to a school with many non-native speakers & a high FARMS population. Some of us don't mind diversity.

Anonymous wrote:Nobody goes into teaching in order to be able to yell at kids. These are people who just cannot manage a classroom. Usually nice people with personal issues.

That's a big blanket statement- you don;t know what teachers do or wanted to to- perhaps some teachers have a bad temper and figured younger kids would work better than adults? (who could recognize it better as abuse and hopefully block it)

Nobody goes into teaching in order to be able to yell at kids. These are people who just cannot manage a classroom. Usually nice people with personal issues.

Why do they become a teacher to abuse kids in the first place and why does FCPS tolerate this ?

They don't start out planning to do that. These are people who get frustrated and have issues. They are not abusers--although that is the effect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a FCPS lower elementary teacher who spent every day ranting, yelling, and melting down in the classroom, losing the kids' work, keeping the entire class on continuous punishments, never allowing recess, and getting kids mixed up. She eventually had her single classroom job taken away, and was placed as a co-teacher in a language immersion classroom.

Our kid learned nothing academically that year. The kid did learn how to handle cruel and crazy teachers, which can come in handy later in life, but you hope for more when they're just little kids.

My DS had that teacher. He would wake up at night shouting her name in nightmares. Parents who did not have this teacher would just be like, glad its you not me.

Wow , this is insane., poor kids, I feel so sad for them. Why do they become a teacher to abuse kids in the first place and why does FCPS tolerate this ?

Private school 3rd grade teacher who told us during the parent conference that she didn't like Social Studies herself, so she didn't teach it. (I'm a history major.)

MCPS teacher on her 3rd back surgery who couldn't control the class. I felt sorry for her, though. She had the toughest kid in the grade, too, and apparently loved this kid and wanted to make it work, but every time the kid ran out of the room, teacher would follow and the class would be teacherless for 45 minutes until she tracked the kid down. By the time we went to the Vice Principal, he said we were the fifth family to complain.

Sadly, the gangs are a problem in high school. Didn't know it started so early.