blabla, in this week’s Mishpacha, there was a letter to a teacher similar but not quite, about how a child was dreading the first day of school each year when the teacher always asked them to write about their summer vacation. Since her family could NOT afford to send her to camp or take a summer vacation she was always embarrassed to write her composition and it always made her dread school. She asked the teacher to please realize that NOT everyone is lucky enough to enjoy summer vacations and to please stop giving that foolish assignment.
Blabla, it is time that the administrations taught teachers to be more sensitive. In these difficult times there are many issues that children go through. There are many issues due to the economy, there are a lot of illness in the home as well as shalom bayis issues, and emotional problems. There are financial issues that cause many arguments and problems. Everyone is very stressed out and no one knows the reasons why some kids are just not doing well. Teachers need to be sensitive and realize that there could be a variety of issues going on with any number of students. If a student is NOT doing well the first thing a teacher should do is ask how they can help the student and NOT put the student down in any way, shape or form. They should ask if the student understood the assignment, if they understood the work, if there is something going on that the child could not concentrate on the assignment. Is there something the child wants or needs to explain.
Blabla, you do NOT have to explain what your issue is, but you can tell the guidance counselor that you were in the ER last night until whatever time it was and that is why you didn’t do well on the assignment and that the fact that you were in the ER is confidential. The GC can send a note to the teacher to allow you to redo the assignment. It probably is best to work with the GC anyway than try to handle the teachers on your own. The GC can say that you are working on an issue that is effecting you but are making tremendous progress so it is not going to effect you in the future. That she is not very concerned about it but it is confidential and she can’t talk about it. I am sure that you and the GC can figure something out.