As the senior year is winding down, though it might be interesting to hear the funniest/strangest conversation you have had with your child’s teachers over the years. I had an odd conversation during the parent/teacher conference a few years back. Below is the conversation, although not quite word for word it is a fair description of the exchange, including my response.
Teacher: Your son has a 98%, which is the top score in the class. I bet you hear that from most of his teachers.
Me: Yes, he works hard and does well in his classes, especially in math and science classes.
Teacher: What to you do, are you like a doctor or an engineer?
Me: No, I work for a small non-profit in the insurance industry.
Teacher: Oh, then where do to suppose his ability comes from?
(Long awkward silence)
Me: Not sure, but we did accidently drop him on his head when he was a baby.
At that point I politely thanked him for his time, got up and walked away. Still not sure is he was complimenting my son or insulting me.
Hopefully he was asking you how your kid got in the top 2 per cent and wanted to know your secrets or if there was a an educational formula you followed. Or maybe it was just genetics. But probably not.
In first grade we went in to talk with our son’s teacher at teacher conference night. Both my husband and I are PhD engineers, and he had an early interest in math, and we “taught” him things. With a very serious look on her face she said to us “your son is teaching the other children things that are inappropriate”. I’m thinking, OMG we haven’t even mentioned sex to him, so what’s she talking about? She said, “He’s telling them about negative numbers”.
donnaleighg-my S is the son of an engineer and the grandson of two engineers. He was the same way. Home from school sick in 1st grade, he said, “There have GOT to be numbers smaller than zero. Explain this to me.” Luckily his school knew what to do with him and sent him to a higher grade-a MUCH higher grade, for math.
With my youngest, she had a second grade teacher who just didn’t seem to like her. While she came into the class doing multiplication, the teacher told us that she was “not old enough”. Then she complained that I’d let D use nail polish and another time that her “skort” was “too short”. Since at the time D was about 50% legs, I was grateful to have found any even THAT long. It was just odd.
More recently, D’s 8th grade teacher told her that my H has the kind of cute cheeks you just want to pinch. H won’t talk to her even now, two years later.
Parent/Teacher conference:
Teacher: And who are you?
Me: I’m (my child’s) mother
Teacher: Oh, where do you live?
Me: Umm, with (my child) and H
Teacher: Oh (followed by puzzled look)
Later (after hearing other things that the teacher said to my child), I realized that because my H had been to the prior P/T conference and that a good male friend of the family had come to her class once to pick her up because she was ill, the teacher had assumed that my child’s parents were a gay couple.
My children had the same excellent K teacher four years apart. It was not enough time for me to forget that the first time I met her she told H and I exactly when she lost her virginity.
@thumper1, that cracked me up. Reminded me of freshman year when of my son’s teachers got fired and he never mentioned it. I noticed a different name on the report card and asked about it. So there’s no way a teacher marriage would be worth mentioning.
When D2 was in first grade, I was asked to come in to have a discussion about my child. I asked D2 if she had done anything at school. Of course she gave me this innocent look and complete denial.
Teacher: " Mrs. Oldfort, your daughter is a lovely girl, but sometimes she has an attitude.".
I thought to myself (oh boy, my kid is not a drone, so sometimes she speaks out), and kind of rolled my eyes.
Teacher: “She likes to roll her eyes when she doesn’t like what she is hearing. Just like that. What you did just now.”
Me: “Ok, I get what you are saying. I will try not to do it as often in front her.”
My kids are both very quiet and introverted. They are keen observers. Unfortunately in elementary school introverts are usually overlooked in favor of the extrovert who is always raising his hand and chiming in with answers etc. My kids conferences always had at least one mention of “he/she does not speak up often enough”.
At the end of fourth grade my S teacher said to us, “I finally realized (son) is very smart. He’s not just quiet!”
It made me sad that an experienced teacher could not discern that earlier.
I was called to the school for a special conference when my son was in kindergarten. The very serious teacher informed me that he was “outside their curriculum”, when I asked what that meant she asked “don’t you ever look at the papers he brings home?” I responded that I put his artwork on the fridge. She told me he completed sixth grade math and they wanted to send him to the middle school for math. Mind you, this was a very short 5 year old who could barely walk with his backpack on without tipping over. I should also note that he was not advanced in any other subjects and was likely considered “immature” by 5 year old standards. She couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of him walking the halls with 7th graders.
When my son was in Montessori preschool, his teacher noticed that he and certain little girl often chose to work together and that my son was more productive when he was partnered with her. The teacher reported that when she asked my son about that, he said “We’re a good team. She does the work and I entertain her while she does it.”
When my youngest was in 2nd grade he smacked a little girl who was bullying him relentlessly during a group art project. The only reason I found out about it was because he was very very upset on the way home from school and spilled his guts. When I didn’t get a phone call from the teacher, I decided to call:
Me: I understand that there was an incident in class today. Son tells me that Little Suzie would not stop badgering him and telling him he was doing everything wrong and just wouldn’t shut up. Does that sound plausible?
Teacher: Absolutely
Me: So he says that he lost control and smacked her in the mouth. He feels very bad about it.
Teacher: Yes, I could tell that he was very remorseful, he was in tears over it.
Me: And what was Little Suzie’s reaction?
Teacher: She shut up.
@donnaleighg: That is funny because we had the exact same experience when our younger one was in kindergarten. (Is that why our kids are attending the same school now?) The only difference was that we heard the story from the teacher’s aide. The teacher was asking the kids how many bears they would have if, for example, they had three bears and then she took two away. She apparently asked a few questions like that and then asked how many they would have if they had two bears and then she took four away. Kiddo answered “Negative two bears.” Teacher reportedly said “Don’t say that. You’ll confuse the other children.” Not the best response …
I received a call from the school nurse about some family history for my DD’s IEP (which had been in place for a while, so all the info was in the file). Often the answer is “I don’t know her health history as she was 2.5 when adopted.”
Nurse: are you going to tell her she was adopted?
Me: she’s Chinese
Nurse: but sometimes people don’t tell children they are adopted
Me: I’m not Chinese
Nurse: but sometimes people don’t tell
Me: but she’s 11
Nurse: but will you tell her?
Me: her IEP is for speech. She’s in the honors program. I think she knows she’s adopted.
( and I’m thinking, “it’s in her file. Why would I put it in all her files, share it with idiots like you, if I were keeping it a secret?”)
My DD’s response was “This is what I deal with all the time. Can you get me out of speech?”
Saddest: I had one school administrator call me at home one night to ask me how my D knew about the war in Iraq and other current events. Apparently she had been talking to other third or fourth graders and the teacher was very upset about it. I stated that we watched the evening news as a family each night and discussed what was going on around the world and that her older brother would be joining the military after hs graduation so it was an ongoing family discussion. I was told that she was too young for the material and I had no business allowing her to watch the news. They then put her in a “behavior” class so she could talk about her feelings.
Funniest: I went into a 1st or 2nd grade parent/teacher conference and sat down with the teacher who handed me a file folder of work D had done in that semester, mostly all very good marks, etc., just a few pieces to show parents. The teacher pointed me to a journal entry with a big smirk on her face, it read “my mother said we can never eat in fast food restaurants, only restaurants that have chardonnay”. We both got a laugh out of it.
Here is one from my own 1st grade (as told by my mother)
The teacher expressed some concern that I may have a reading disability of some sort and wanted to talk to my mom. The teacher explained that I was holding books upside down/sideways etc and wanted to have some significant evaluation done. My mom suggested the first step should be to ask me why I hold the books upside down/sideways/etc. My answer - It takes me longer that way so I don’t get to far ahead of the other kids.
And one for my sister (also told by my mother)
Teacher was worried that she was not drawing hands whenever she drew people and that there was some sort of perception issue going on. Again, in my mom’s infinite wisdom, they asked my sister. Her answer - I can’t draw hands, so I just imagine everyone’s sleeves are too long.
Come to think of it, maybe there is something wrong with us
