I have a question to ask and I hope to get some feedback from you'all because you are a very smart group of people that I have come to respect. My son is now in high school but when he was in fourth grade he had a teacher that really didn't like him. No if's and's but's about it. Almost daily she took it upon herself to pick on him in one form or another. He at the time was in a gifted talented program and was enrolled in the accelerated learning so there really wasn't much she could do to sabbatoge his grades, however I do understand that can be a result for some students. He was and still is a very confident, bright light type of child, very optimistic and energetic about life and all of it's hope. He is a natural leader of sorts and kids tend to gravitate to him and will choose to do or follow what he does. So we are blessed that he uses that and leads in a positive way rather than negative and that he isn't a follower of any sort. Okay, toot toot beep beep. After several days of him coming home and telling me things that this teacher was doing I went to the principal and requested a conference with the teacher to better understand where she was coming from and what the problem was. The teacher told me to move him to another class. I figured this was my opportunity to take the high road and teach my son something in life. There will be people that don't like you for whatever reason, but you don't run or bail out. Not everyone has to like you and there is something more to learn from this teacher than just the academics that she is hired to teach you. She didn't have examples of him getting in trouble, never any complaints but she continued. One day he came to school with a T-shirt that said " BALLERS UNITE", she asked him what that meant and She questioned him about what he knew about gangs. Another day one of the students said that he felt pimpalicious, not my son mind you, but she said to the student what does that mean? Do you know what a pimp is? And proceeded to tell the students about pimps and hookers. This was beyond unacceptable to me as My son ran it by me when he got home from school almost verbatim. I called the teacher and she said you weren't here so you don't know what I said... my response to that was nothing should have been said at all. IF you can't talk about God, you surely can't talk about Pimps and hookers, stick to the text that you are mandated to teach. So the year progressed and the bullying continued and the conversations continued at home and at school. We prayed for her almost nightly. What teacher would pick on a kid. We had meetings with the principal and the school board and she continued to teach. So the very last day of school came and she hugged all of the students and when she got to my son she skipped over him and said, "You are no longer my problem" No hug and left him sad on his way to the bus.
So here's the question...
My son has been involved in many mentoring programs for children younger than him. He is a great role model and takes the opportunity to guide and empower younger cousins and neighbors etc. He talks about this teacher often to this day. It's a source of pain for him when he reflects back on his fourth grade experience. He said to me last night that he wanted to write to this teacher and let her know what she did and that she didn't change him and that he forgives her but also wants to THANK her for teaching him how not to treat other people and how to show kindness at every opportunity because you never know what someone else is going through. <- I lesson I am still struggling with. My debate is this: Is this appropriate? Can he write to this teacher and should this be sent on to her. Thoughts?
