"Mrs. Kwong... do Ryan and yourselves a favor... have Ryan repeat Kindergarten..."
I’m sooooo frustrated with Ry’s teacher. The woman is off her rocker. A lot of my fellow parents think that she’s losing it. I’m Room Parent (surprise, surprise) and I’ve been trying to help find volunteers for the classroom since the teacher claims she can’t handle the class without a co-teacher. (Her co-teacher got moved to 3rd grade at the beginning of the year and wasn’t replaced – thanks to the budget – so she relies solely on parent volunteers.) Since I sent out the note, I’ve had 4 parents approach me about how concerned they are that Mrs. Latone (the teacher) doesn’t have help and that she’s very obviously losing control in her classroom… yeah, I see the red flag waving… but there’s more!
Every day, I pick up one of Ry’s classmates (Evan) in the afternoon to take him to daycare. She lets me know if he was good or bad and I let Evan’s dad know. Today, when I picked Ryan and Evan up, Mrs. Latone busts out how incredibly awful Evan is and starts rambling about how if this behavior continues, she will call Evan’s parents at work and one of them will have to come to class to sit with him or take him home. (Really extreme, don’tcha think?) I suggested she call Evan’s parents at home tonight to talk to them about this. But she continued to ramble on… and on… and on… When I finally got her to stop talking about Evan, she starts ranting about how Ryan doesn’t pay attention in class, that his dysgraphia is even worse than before and how he’s socially immature. Then she says, “Mrs. Kwong, I know you’re moving schools in September… I would like to suggest that you do Ryan and yourselves a favor and have him repeat kindergarten.” WTF! She busts this out at the gate while we’re all picking up kids and is talking loud. I couldn’t believe the unprofessionalism! I asked her what she was basing this on since I know that Ryan reads at an accelerated level and that he is really good in math and art. She said that he is unable to focus and constantly asks for attention from her. HELLO! He’s 5-years-old! He’s a first child – which is usually the sensitive one… I was totally annoyed. At that point, Evan and Ryan were about to run across the street (without me) and I told her politely, “Thanks for the information… You’ve given us something to discuss… and I’m certain that we will be sending Ryan to 1st grade next year.” She doesn’t have any academic reason for recommending him to be held back… and her social immaturity reasoning isn’t enough since not holding focus and bad had writing aren’t good enough. He doesn’t cause any trouble and his lack of focus only causes him to be a little slow to start projects – he usually finishes along with the rest of the group. GRRRRRRR… I was soooooo pissed.
Anyway, I got home and Ralph (Evan’s dad) called to talk about the message I’d left him about my convo with Mrs. Latone. He was flaming pissed. Whenever he tries to talk to her about all the reports I give him, she blows him off or turns it around to make it like he’s the worst ever child in the world. I ended up comparing notes with Ralph and found out that all that dyslexia/dysgraphia/ADD/ADHD crap that she’s been feeding me for months, she has been telling Ralph about Evan and a few other parents as well. He also told me that some of his daughter’s friends had told him that when they had Mrs. Latone 7+ years ago, she had tried to diagnose THEM as dyslexic and ADD! So this is a THING with her!
We’ve only got 2-1/2 more months til school is out. I just need to suck it up until I get Ry registered at his new school in 1st grade with no problems (they actually do interviews with the parents and kids before enrolling – it’s going to be a few weeks til I get confirmation that he’s registered…). I need to suck it up and not file a complaint until I know that Ry is set. I still need to get Mrs. Latone’s letter of recommendation for Ry’s 1st grade promotion. (Which she said she will do since she can’t hold him back for academics or behavior. She was only recommending that he be put through kindergarten again… ugh! Those words just grate on my nerves!!!) I spoke to 5 of my teacher friends (3 teach kindergarten in the district Ry in currently in) and they all agreed that Mrs. Latone’s reasoning is way off and that she was very unprofessional for speaking so openly on the playground about her concerns about Ryan – these should’ve been addressed at a private conference and I shouldn’t have been blindsided by it. I’m scheduled to work in the classroom next week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to collect my thoughts and speak with her on a mature level…
OK… that was a mouthful, ‘eh? Thanks for listening…
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