Despite my little rant yesterday, I love our school. It sounds corny to say “our” school, but it really is a warm and fuzzy community, and our whole family is a part of it. There are only 5 classrooms, 75 families, and 110 kids. Everyone knows Jo, and most everyone knows Opie and me too. We look out for each other’s kids on the playground after the bell rings. There’s one boy who always bums a ride to the library from someone else’s mom, because he’s afraid to cross the bridge between the school and the library. We’re only five years old, and the one and only charter school in our district, so we have to stick together to justify our existence regularly.
The classrooms are mixed-age, so kids and teachers stay together for two to three years. I absolutely love this; it encourages the little ones to look up to the big ones and the big ones to be good helpers and role models for the littles. Plus there’s less time spent on kids and teachers getting to know each other at the beginning of each year; my daughter’s 1st grade teacher will also be her 2nd and 3rd grade teacher. (Jo called Mrs. R. “my best teacher for life” on her end-of-year thank-you drawing.)
Yesterday–two days after the last day of school, it should be noted–one of the mothers from this class sent out an email to several other parents complaining about Mrs. R. It made me sick and I couldn’t shake that feeling of disgust all day. Flinging untrue allegations and threats about the school board and “the state” in a mass email? Not cool. I don’t think anything will come of it, because of this parent’s past unfounded complaints. But the thought of our lovely teacher being tarnished by this bothers me, a lot. I and several others replied to the mail (despite my fear of poking the cranky with a stick) as gently and neutrally as we could, stating that our experience and our children’s had been very different from hers.
I hope she gets the hint. I’m sorry that she doesn’t see what she’s missing, and I’m even more sorry that her child is missing out on it too.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
That sounds like a great school!
Having the same teacher for multiple years is a great idea, especially with little kids who are somewhat shy or not comfortable in new surroundings. It sounds like a great school.
I wondered where you’d gone, and then I saw a tweet pointing to your last post. Guess I forgot to update my feed reader!
We have one more week of school and it’s kicking my ass , too!
I would love for Q-ster to get the same (good) teacher for more than one year too. At least almost his whole 3′s preschool class is going into the 4′s class, which will make him more comfortable.
Your school sounds great!
Your school sounds awesome. Since moving to our farm, we have started at a smaller school too. It has about 400 kids, but that’s small for here. Thats a terrible thing for that mother to do. Why didn’t she be more discreet??
I wanted to ask, in USA you guys have a big holiday now right? A couple of months off school is it??
The mixed-age classroom sounds awesome. I would love that for my girls.
I’m sorry about the email. That would ruin my day too.
Your kids are so lucky!! It sounds like an awesome place to learn.
Good for you for poking the cranky.