Miss 9 and I having a discussion after school:
Miss 9: "We wrote a Christmas wish list today. I put down three things - we were only allowed to put down three things"
Me: "What things did you put on your list?"
Miss 9: "Well I put down a DS because I've wanted one for years, and - as we weren't allowed to put down knives - I put down a cookbook ..."
Me: "Woo, back up a bit, what do you mean you weren't allowed to put down knives?"
Miss 9: "Miss [Redacted] said we weren't allowed to put down weapons - like knives and guns"
Me: "Okay I'll call the school tomorrow and talk to the Deputy Principal."
Later on in the evening a boy from her class and his mum were over for a cuppa and after I told her about this, she asked her son what he put on the list. He apparently put down a "Nerf Gun" so it will be interesting to see what happens with that.
He also mentioned that she had asked the class to verbalise what they wanted on their lists before they did the written part of the exercise. Apparently Miss 9 did verbalise that she wanted more knives - and the teacher's response AFTER THIS was that "knives, guns and other weapons aren't allowed on the list". (The teacher knows of Miss 9's interest in cooking and knows that she got a knife roll and some knives for her birthday).
Mmmm, I wonder what she cuts her food with!
Will let you know how things go with the school tomorrow.
I also asked Miss 7 if she was given a list of things that she couldn't put on her list - apparently she wasn't as she actually put down 5 different toy guns and 2 Barbie dolls!
[UPDATE: Apparently Miss 9 has said "pocket knife" when asked by the teacher in class - prompting the "knives, guns and other weapons aren't allowed on the list" response. I believe that I pocket knife is a valid request - doesn't mean she's getting one though.
I asked Miss 9 what she wanted to do about this situation this morning. She said she would like to write a 'real list' for Santa and take that to school. So she did (with three items - filleting knife, pocket knife and a giant cookbook). I asked her to give it to the Deputy Principal and explain in her words why and I said I would follow that up with a call.
I am now waiting on the Deputy Principal to return my call. [/UPDATE]
3 comments:
Oh yeah... PC ism is getting to your part of the world too! Looking forward to hearing how they try to defend this one...
Ugh. When teachers bring their own agenda to teaching, bottling up children's initiatives, rather than letting kids use their imaginations, talk about their own tastes, etc... Hideous.
No teacher/school should be able to tell our children what they can put on their Xmas list...period! We can change the NCLB campaign title...NCLBWK (no child left behind with a knife)!!
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