I am blindsided on this so I would like fresh opinions.
DC12 goes to a lovely school and gets on well with all the teachers and does well academically and has no problems... except with one teacher. At first I thought there were misunderstandings but after a meeting with her feel that there are other problems. DC is coming out of lessons stressed and he dreads seeing her. This is just one example of an exchange, but is typical.
Five children in the class are doing a test which they had missed through absence. The rest of the children including DC were asked to revise for another upcoming test while others were doing this. Normally during tests no one is allowed to put things on their desk, but because only a few children were doing the test, DC wasn't sure and asked the teacher if he should put his things on the desk. This is the exchange:
DC: should we put our things on the desk or keep them off the desk?
Teacher: You need to revise for the test.
DC: I know - I meant, is it okay to put my things on the table while revising?
Teacher: You don't know what to revise?
DC: I do know what to revise - I was just asking if we should be putting our things out too?
Teacher: Oh, you don't know what to revise? I will show you [Teacher picks up book].
DC: I know what to revise, I meant .... [at this point DC decided to give up and stay quiet]
This sort of thing has happened a lot, DC feeling that the teacher was not listening at all. I thought it might simply be a communication blockage.
At the teacher/parent meetings, I was told by all the teachers other than this one that DC was well behaved, engaging with the class, etc. This teacher said the opposite and when I explained what had happened above from DC's point of view I was told that DC was not telling me the truth (unlikely, he came out feeling confused and stressed and told me about it almost as soon as he came out of class as it had been the last class of the day) and that DC had been arguing and insisting on putting their stuff on the table, she mimicked "I WANT to put my PENCIL CASE on the TABLE".
Seems completely bizarre and I can't get my head round the mismatch in how things are being represented.
I am worried because DC now feels bullied and intimidated by the teacher whether this is intentional or not.
What do you think?