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Because she knows that this teacher won't ever treat her fairly, since she'll always associate her with this incident. It also seems that this teacher dislikes high achieving students, and is clearly detrimental to this student's education.
How do you know that the teacher hates high achieving students? Where did the OP say that?
I never had a meeting with the teacher. The teacher didn't respond to my email.
My daughter did, however, talk to the principal herself. I left her in the front of the school before I went back home to get her younger sister ready for school (I stated that it wasn't fair to her sister to have to lose sleep over her issues at school). The principal unlocked the doors to the school. My daughter talked to the principal and waited in his office because she didn't know the logistics of detention. The teacher apparently came and got my daughter, signed her out of detention and gave her 100, and told her she needed to go to morning tutorials. As I wasn't there, I don't know all the details.
If I am reading that correctly, are you saying that the principal overrode the teacher's grade, and gave her the 100 that she deserved on the exam? If so, then I am glad that it worked out. No sure what "morning tutorials" are. And it's not clear if she had to serve her detention or not.
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I know cheating is common, and my daughter (well, daughters) will both be cheating targets, and sometimes people are judged guilty until proven innocent, but I have never gotten a "0" for somebody trying to copy off of me. Hopefully, my daughter learns an unfair lesson about life, but I think it's prudent and common sense to try to improve the situation. Also, there's is a time and place to pick your battles.
Both excellent points.
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Academically she would learn a lot more. However, she is learning lessons about life, humanity, and society that I would have never thought to teach her.
She doesn't think she'll be treated fairly if she's judged guilty until proven innocent.
My daughter also has previously said the following things about the teacher:
(a) the teacher is frequently making mistakes and the students have to correct her
(b) the teacher needs a calculator to check her own work
(c) my daughter has trouble understanding the teacher's English
(d) the teacher handwriting is hard to read, and the other teacher writes more neatly
We are talking about an elementary school age kid in middle school. She is very cognizant of cheating, but she is focused on doing her work, and not looking out for the rampant cheating that is occurring.
The grade doesn't count now, but next year when she's most likely in Algebra as a 7th grader, the grade will count. High school classes taken in middle school count to the high school GPA.
Given that the grades are low stakes in 6th grade in your district, it's a tough call as to whether she should try to switch to the other teacher's class, or whether she should tough it out and think of that class as an opportunity to try to get along with a difficult person, when the stakes are low. It sounds like for sure she would learn more from the other teacher. And, assuming I read your post correctly, this teacher will likely be very angry that her grade was overridden. But trying to change teachers would be a very difficult process, and one where she could make more enemies along the way, unfortunately. So, it might be best, in this case, to just tough it out, and try as best as she can to get along with this teacher, knowing that if the grades are meaningless, then this teacher has no real power over her.
If by some chance your daughter gets stuck with this teacher again next year, when the stakes are higher, definitely have her switched into a different class. I don't know about your district, but in my district, the policy was that you could only switch out of a teacher's class if either you or a sibling had that teacher previously, and if you have a valid reason why that teacher would be counterproductive to the student's education. It seems to me that you for sure would have a valid argument next year. Perhaps this year, your daughter can keep a log of all the times that this teacher treats her unfairly, so that she can present it next year if she gets stuck with that teacher again.
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Thank you for your thoughtful advice based on your past experiences. I have taken out some of your previous message for the sake of brevity, but I will definitely convey the message about high-achieving students. I know there is a lot of unfairness in the world and I teach my children that, I try to get them to focus on the factors under their control and influence. Working hard and being proactive definitely, in general, leads to high achievement whether it is in academics or other endeavors, like sports.
You're welcome. Glad that I was able to help based on my past experiences.
We are talking about an elementary school age kid in middle school. She is very cognizant of cheating, but she is focused on doing her work, and not looking out for the rampant cheating that is occurring.
Is she in middle school or elementary? I'm confused.
Sounds like she is elementary school aged, but skipped a grade and is in middle school.
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The grade doesn't count now, but next year when she's most likely in Algebra as a 7th grader, the grade will count. High school classes taken in middle school count to the high school GPA.
Are you sure? That's not how it was in my kids' school.
Every school is different. Just because a school is different from yours doesn't mean that other's experiences are not true.
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Thank you for your thoughtful advice based on your past experiences. I have taken out some of your previous message for the sake of brevity, but I will definitely convey the message about high-achieving students. I know there is a lot of unfairness in the world and I teach my children that, I try to get them to focus on the factors under their control and influence. Working hard and being proactive definitely, in general, leads to high achievement whether it is in academics or other endeavors, like sports.
OMG! This guy has a history of posting all sorts of "poor me" stuff here. Take it with a grain of salt.
(Mine in blue.)
I at least tried to offer the OP some sympathy and support, and useful advice based on past experiences.
A child is asked if they did something against the rules. A child who did break the rules has a reason to lie, i.e to avoid punishment. A child who did not has no reason to lie. But you cannot determine which one is lying and which is not just by asking the question.
Meanwhile, the teacher has no reason to lie. Dealing with the parents, principal and disciplinary committee, filling out the paperwork, endless emails, etc. is all impetus for a teacher to look the other way (as many do). They literally have no benefit to lying about a pupil what so ever and in fact have reason to avoid writing students up in the first place.
If it was a students word against a teachers for something the teacher has a reason to lie about than it would be a different story, which is exactly why it is not bias.
Some teachers have biases, for whatever reason, against certain individual students or certain groups of students. I've mentioned in the past that many teachers have biases against high or low achieving students. I've had many teachers who had biases against boys. I am sure that teachers with biases against girls must exist too. Teachers often lie to get somebody that they don't like in trouble. And, sometimes teachers may not be lying at all, but just may make mistakes. And then there are teachers who think it's their primary job to teach that life isn't fair.
How do you know that the teacher hates high achieving students? Where did the OP say that?
Usually teachers who give 0's for disciplinary reasons hate high achieving students, since it's a punishment that mostly only impacts high achieving students. Also, based on the OP's posts, this teacher sounds incompetent, and such teachers usually hate high achieving students. Also, the OP mentioned that the teacher discriminated against her daughter for being noticeably smaller and younger than the others in the class. I'll admit, that I somewhat reading between the lines and applying some of my own experiences to this case.
This happened to me in high school physics class. Actually, it was worse than that. A good friend and I both got perfect scores on a quiz (calc-based, don't remember what it was). The teacher put our papers side by side, scored it by writing half on one paper and half on the other, and said we get 50% credit each for working together. We failed. I was declared academically ineligible for hockey that week.
That taught us essentially nothing...
That was ridiculous. Sorry you had to deal with that. Did you try to escalate the situation to get the grade changed to the 100 that you deserved?
My daughter just got detention today and a "0" because some other girl was trying to copy off her. The teacher accused my daughter of intentional trying to help her. The thing is, my daughter doesn't even know the name of the girl, etc. My daughter is just starting middle school and is taking math at the next grade level (she's probably the youngest person taking 7th-grade math out of ~350-400 students). She's small, and will obviously stick out. Anybody have any suggestions on what to do? Obviously, the age factor, etc. will potentially be problematic in the future.
I would call a meeting with the teacher, the principle and another adult, your spouse, a friend go with you?
Discuss it and see what happens and how they feel...
This happened to me in high school physics class. Actually, it was worse than that. A good friend and I both got perfect scores on a quiz (calc-based, don't remember what it was). The teacher put our papers side by side, scored it by writing half on one paper and half on the other, and said we get 50% credit each for working together. We failed. I was declared academically ineligible for hockey that week.
That taught us essentially nothing...
History was my favorite subject at school and I read it extensively (this was before the days of the internet when kids did read a lot). I remember one test where I got 100%. The teacher called me to his desk at the front and asked me five extra questions. I got all five right and my 100% was confirmed.
In my school district, 6th grade was legally considered elementary school, even though we were in a middle school building.
It appears she's in a middle school building. The topic was desks, not classifications.
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