To think short kids should go at the front

[TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl]

DD is the shortest in her class by some way (year 5).

Today her entire class had a poetry competition thing happening with other schools, where the class all spoke a poem/piece of writing at once. Also lots of actions and hand gestures etc.

Well I took 2 hours off work, drove to the church it was happening at, paid an entry fee to sit through it all without seeing DD once. Because She was at the back behind the tall kids. now and again I saw a hand raised up when there was an action but that’s it. This isn’t the first time this has happened.

WIBU to complain to the teacher and say in future can she not just put her at the front where I can see her. They rehearse the moves and she would have been out at the back for the beginning.

You'd think they'd use common sense, wouldn't you ?

They've probably had parents complain previously for making a child feel bad by singling them out because of their size.

Perhaps she didn't WANT to be at the front, lots of children don't! It's hard filling up the front row sometimes, they all shuffle backwards!

I’m surprised they don’t already. It was always the thing at school, tall kids at the back. Or small kids at the back stood on a bench. Probably wouldn’t be allowed to do that now I suppose but I loved getting the bench 😂

Why not just ask instead of complaining? They might be in class order, speaking order, who's voices project best order, who gets there first order etc. You won't know unless you ask. Are you sure your dd wasn't actively hiding from you? I know one of mine did!

So the answer is to put them in front of a smaller child?

They had specific places to go to, they didn’t pick their own, it was choreographed

Sounds just like my ds's Xmas performance. It was years 3-6 and for some reason the oldest classes were at the front. Even when the year 3's sang a song on their own the other children didn't sit down so still couldn't see them. We did feedback to the school (as did many others) so hopefully doesn't happen again.

Unless your child comes up to a little more than waist height max, she would obscure the view of their child for other parents, even if not totally. I can see arguments for and against this as a default policy.

So other people need to see their kids chest but I don’t get to see my child at all?

She doesn’t even come up to the chins of a few of her classmates so could easily have been put at the front.

This happened at my daughters nativity they put her behind a much taller child who was wearing flipping huge angel wings and I couldn’t see my dd the whole time as she was covered by the huge wings ☹️ don’t know why they do that couldn’t even get a nice video.

Well, if it was choreographed, there must have been a reason why she was placed where she was. Perhaps ask?

They deserve to see the actions and gestures too not just their face is what I mean. I'm guessing that the height differentials for the class as a whole did not mean that there was a tall enough child to stand behind every small enough child

I can’t think of a good enough reason as to why they’d put the shortest child directly behind one of the tallest children

So if other parents deserve to see their children’s action surely I deserve to see even a glimpse of my child?

As I’ve said DD comes below several children’s chins, there would very much have been easy to coordinate. And even so, when is the answer EVER ‘stick that short child right at the back’

Honestly some MNers are fucking contrary 😂

Get her some stilts

We used to line up in height order, tallest first, and then walk in to place, so the back row would fill up first, then the next, etc.

Only exception was choir as they needed the people with the same sort of voice together I think? But even then the shorter contraltos or whatever were in front of the bigger contraltos.

🤣🤣 she’d clobber me with them for being such a cheeky fucker

DD has been the tallest in her class for years (boys are zooming past this year). Not sure how I'd feel if she had bee in the back for every one of those years.

Staggered rows, benches, more space sideways would be nicer.

Maybe she didnt stand where she was supposed to?

Where would you have preferred her? Obscuring someone else?

I was the tallest in my year at school pretty much the whole way through. I remember being glad of the ‘shield’ in front of me!

She says she did and the choreography (such as turning to the person next to you to say something) suggests everyone is where they were supposed to be

What actually matters, OP, is whether your DD was happy with where she was (without you telling her not to be).

I assume the year groups were all together. I was the shortest in my class, and I can just imagine the humiliation of being told in Year 5 to go and join the Year 3 line-up because I was short.

I meant a smaller child. If a parent has complained that their kid feels victimised for always being at the front because their short (yes, victimised. This is a direct quote. This has happened multiple times) then the following year, the teacher will intentionally put some shorter children at the back to avoid another parents nonsense complaint.

Where would you have preferred her? Obscuring someone else?

Did you read my second paragraph? There were only two!