I refuse to let my son have a D on this assignment *had a meeting with the teacher and VP

Grade this assignment for me, and at the end of this post i will put what grade my 1st graders teacher gave him on it.

Instructions: What makes your mom and dad the BEST mom and dad? What do you like to do with your parents? Does mom make good cookies you like? Do you and dad like to play catch together? Tell me why your mom and dad are the best parents ever.

His answer

my mom is the best mom because she is my mom and dad stuck in one. she doesnt make me eat the yucky veggies at supper and she lets me eat chistos? (cheetos?) before bedtime. I like it when me and mommy watch veggy tails late at nite once jaejae is sleeping and when we get to stay up late until almost 10pm is fun and so is late nite drives without jaejae.

my dad is not cool because he got lost at lego land and never got out

His grade was a D.

I don't agree with that. He wrote what he liked about his mommy, and what he likes to do. He got a D due to the fact he didn't talk about his dad. He doesnt KNOW his dad! His dad and his dads friend took him to lego land on his 5th birthday and ran into a family friend, asked if they would watch him for a few minutes and left. Never paid a dime of child support or ever made an attempt to see him. The teachers response (email) was that the assignment was to right about what a GOOD mom or dad is, and that if he wasn't able to write about a personal response, he was to write about a friends dad, or any dad he knows. He knows his uncle (he has 4 kids) however he doesn't see him as a dad figure to know what to write, and hes only a FIRST grader. He doesn't even think like that to think of a family member or friends dad to write a story about when it said YOUR mommy and YOUR daddy.

She said she would up it to a C but due to the fact he didn't complete the assignment it can't be an A or B.

I know his grades in first grade don't mean anything, but this whole situation annoys me, and i don't think its appropriate (atleast not the instructions she gave as far as u HAVE to talk about a mom and a dad) when alot of the families around here are broken families. Its suppose to be a valentines kind of assignment.

Maybe i'm overreacting and looking to far into it. But my son can't see why he got a bad grade on it when he told the truth.

I dropped my son off at school, and while they were having breakfast i went to the teachers classroom to talk to her, and there was 2 other parents who were waiting to talk to her about this assignment. 

I was talking to them while we were waiting and one of them was infuriated about the assignment, to the point she was almost crying because her 6 year old niece had to do this assignment. Her neices parents and brother were all 3 killed in a car accident. Her niece never did the assignment because she didn't want to talk about it. Shes in therapy for it, and if you ask about her parents she'll break down and cry. The teacher gave her a 0 and kept in her for afternoon recess because she wouldn't work on her homework. 

The teacher stated that it was just a fun assignment for valentines day and that we are all taking it to personal. She was very defensive and just refused to do anything about it. The vice principal got involved and the VP ripped up the assignments and threw it all way and said the grade was to be erased from the gradebook and no more assignments like this would ever be assigned. Not even the one about there favorite friend.  The teacher had to apologize and the VP said if we wanted our children switched over to the other classroom with a different teacher we could.  The other lady put her niece in there that second, she didn't even think about it. I asked my son and he said he wanted to go in the other classroom (thats were his friends are, and he likes that teacher)

I'm glad it was worked out. It annoyed the hell out of me and i felt sorry for that girl and her niece :(

But its all good now and i know and love the teacher he has now. 

And she won't give any assignments like that because her personally have 2 foster children, 1 step child and 2 children that arent her current husbands. So she'll understand stuff like that instead of miss perfect house wife.

[IAMmomtotrips]

The teachers email says to use personal experiences if you have them...but the topic is

"The teachers response (email) was that the assignment was to right about what a GOOD mom or dad is"

Quoting AutymsMommy:

Er, no.

The assignment SPECIFICALLY asked about the child's parents.

Quoting IAMmomtotrips:

As a teacher, I would have given a low grade...but not because of the dad part...he didn't answer the question at all... The question was what makes a good mom or dad...that means you shouldn't have been mentioned at all...unless he was using it as an example...



Like: A good mom spends time with the kids. My mom lets me stay up late after my brother goes to sleep and watch movies with her...



A good dad takes his kids fishing.



I however would have modeled it for them so they knew the correct format, etc, but they have to show they are on topic....



Your son's work isn't on topic...his topic would be what makes my mom a good mom...and that is a completely different topic.

[gonecrazi]

 bump

[AutymsMommy]

That may have been what she WANTED, but it was most certainly not the written assignment she gave to the students, according to the original post.

Quoting IAMmomtotrips:

The teachers email says to use personal experiences if you have them...but the topic is

"The teachers response (email) was that the assignment was to right about what a GOOD mom or dad is"

Quoting AutymsMommy:

Er, no.

The assignment SPECIFICALLY asked about the child's parents.

Quoting IAMmomtotrips:

As a teacher, I would have given a low grade...but not because of the dad part...he didn't answer the question at all... The question was what makes a good mom or dad...that means you shouldn't have been mentioned at all...unless he was using it as an example...



Like: A good mom spends time with the kids. My mom lets me stay up late after my brother goes to sleep and watch movies with her...



A good dad takes his kids fishing.



I however would have modeled it for them so they knew the correct format, etc, but they have to show they are on topic....



Your son's work isn't on topic...his topic would be what makes my mom a good mom...and that is a completely different topic.

[Mandallyn]

Quoting Anonymous:

Thats bull shit

[cLanief]

That is sooo fucked up and wrong!!!! He completed the assignment.. it's not his fault he didn't have anything to write about his dad. Ffs!!! I'd actually have a talk with the principal cuz he couldn't have been the only kid.

[Kris_PBG]

As a teacher, I think that is insane to mandate a child write about a person who he does not have in his life.  The assignment does not make sense for him to write about his mom and someone else's dad.  How insensitive and out of touch...

[Kerannmer]

I disagree with you, IAMmomtotrips. The original instructions given to the first-grader are: 

 What makes your mom and dad the BEST mom and dad? What do you like to do with your parents? Does mom make good cookies you like? Do you and dad like to play catch together? Tell me why your mom and dad are the best parents ever.

It doesn't say what makes A good mom or dad. It says What makes YOUR...It's absurd to expect a first-grader to interpret anything beyond what is written. The e-mail was sent after the fact with a different take on the instructions.

The child answered the questions. He stated what he thinks makes his mom the best mom.

Quoting IAMmomtotrips:

The teachers email says to use personal experiences if you have them...but the topic is

"The teachers response (email) was that the assignment was to right about what a GOOD mom or dad is"

Quoting AutymsMommy:

Er, no.

The assignment SPECIFICALLY asked about the child's parents.

 

Quoting IAMmomtotrips:

As a teacher, I would have given a low grade...but not because of the dad part...he didn't answer the question at all... The question was what makes a good mom or dad...that means you shouldn't have been mentioned at all...unless he was using it as an example...



Like: A good mom spends time with the kids. My mom lets me stay up late after my brother goes to sleep and watch movies with her...



A good dad takes his kids fishing.



I however would have modeled it for them so they knew the correct format, etc, but they have to show they are on topic....



Your son's work isn't on topic...his topic would be what makes my mom a good mom...and that is a completely different topic.

 

 

 

[Anonymous 17]

id take that to admin. thats unfair to the student. making up parents that you dont have can be emotionally stressful for a child.

[firespurity]

So her response was that the assignment was about a good example of a couple... why didn't she originally say that?

[Anonymous 18]

 

I would honestly take this advice and see the principle or director of your sons school other this ... because its BS in my opinion

Quoting tossed:

I am a former high school teacher. Her directions were HORRIBLE and totally inappropriate. My sons would have had trouble with this assignment. Kids who have 2 moms would have trouble with this assignment. She may have given other oral instructions, but the written instruction are really bad. She put kids in a position to fail. I hate it when a teacher does that and I do not think you over reacted. She is totally insensitive to modern families and the assignment makes kids who don't have 2 parents in the home feel bad. If she wanted an answer to the question "What is a good parent in your opinion?" she should have asked that question.