DS punished for teachers mistake

[babynot]

DS's(8) class were given a new work book at school last week with with printed labels on the front.
Imagine his name is something like Tommy but this book said Tom which he is never called and hates.

He told the teacher his name was wrong on the label and was told not to worry about it, he didnt ask and so wasn't told not to correct it but decided to scribble out ‘Tom’ and write ‘Tommy’ below. It looks fine, obviously not as neat as it would printed but you can clearly read what it says.

Teacher has left a note saying he needs to rewrite his work into a new book which has been sent home because he vandalised the first one. Its only a few pages of work but will take him at least 20 minutes to do

AIBU to think this is unfair and it’s not his fault they put the wrong name?

Don’t do that! Why should you spend your spare time making up for the teacher’s mistake? If you wanted to spend that time supporting his education there are a million better things you could do with or for him.

Tear the page out from the old book and tape into the new book. Teacher is out of order.

YANBU. Why can’t the teacher just photocopy the work he did in the first book and stick it into the second book? As said above, I expect she’s under pressure to have all the work neat, but the fault was hers and she shouldn’t be involving your son.

Teacher is wrong and rather petty in this situation.
Agree with Noblegiraffe - ask for a label over the top.

He has a right to the correct name being used.

Cut the correct label off the new book and glue it onto the original.

Poor of the teacher, unless there's more to the story. Sometimes there have been typos on labels I've used (often not typed by me!). If I'd assured a child I'd sort it, I wouldn't be massively impressed if they'd still made a mess on the front. I wouldn't make them redo the work but I'd probably point out their action hadn't been strictly necessary. Did the teacher definitely just say 'not to worry' and nothing else? How do you know what the book looks like now?

Can you help him? Photocopy his work, stick it in the new book, should take 5 mins max? Or can you help him remove the sticker from the new book and add it to the old book so it's not 'vandalised'

I'm 60 now, but when I was around 7, our school had a lot of children come over from Malawi. My two new friends were called Riyaz and Rajesh. Our teacher decided to call them John and Peter as they were "proper" names. Think about that for a moment - can you imagine it being allowed now? I'd hope not anyway and yet.... in a minor way, your son's teacher has done exactly that - not by getting it wrong ... it happens, but by compounding the simple error by insisting that she wasn't going to change it and then punishing him for her mistake when a simple reprinting of the label would suffice. He hasn't vandalised anything - he's just pointed out that his name isn't John or Peter, but Riyaz or Rajesh.

Having labelled books and trays in a primary, I would request a new label to stick over the incorrect one. He has already completed the work and this would be my hill to die on. It is the teacher's mistake in the first place for not checking what name the child goes by. It is something we take a lot of care over because names are very important.

Absolutely this. What a waste of resources also.

This ⬆️
and the reason I’m no longer teaching!

I do not understand why schools/teachers police the children’s names like they do.

My oldest DS has a proper first name but is and always has been called by his first initials. Mostly because I’m not over keen on his first name-I agreed to give him it (family name) on the basis he was called by his initials. His infant and junior school INSISTED on calling him by his proper name. Said they couldn’t consider calling him by his initials. Strangely his secondary school couldn’t give two hoots and have called him by his initials the whole 5 and a bit years he’s been there. They even managed to print his GCSE certificates with his official name and everything despite having never called him it.

The teacher is a twat and I’d not only be not making him copy out his work but I would be having words with him/her as well.

Yes, a stupid instruction. Good for him.

I would speak to her and ask why he couldn't correct his own name, why she couldn't stick a good sticker over the bad one, and why after 6 months of teaching him she didn't know his name.

I would cut the front covers from the books and sticky tape the new cover to the old book. I would also advise the teacher that the mistake was the staff's, not the child's, so a bit of leniency would not go amiss.

If the teacher did intend to change the sticker in due course so the kid's name was right, then she should have told him she would get it sorted and to leave it for now. Her lack of communication is not the child's fault.

To be fair I think that last point is the most crucial. It's not September, we're now in March for goodness sake. Surely by now the very minimum the teacher should know about your child is their name.

How very odd. Obviously name needs to be corrected if its wrong. Asking him to copy his work into a new book which is wasting resources is ridiculous.

PS. I never got round this thing with names in the UK. In my home country the child would be named Thomas and that would be put on school books, whatever the child would be called and referred to as.

That’s ridiculous! I’m a teacher and I would never do something like that - there is absolutely nothing to be gained from re writing work that has been done! Yes, I might say something about him writing on the book ( although she should have just changed his name on the book when he said it , he has a right to be called by the name he prefers ) purely just to set standards really , personally I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid but I just mean I kind of get that .. but re writing work he has already done is just ridiculous .

It seems like a very old school thing , a pointless punishment - like writing lines !

As a teacher that would be so far down my list of worries!

Strange thing for them to get wound up over.

@babynot I would return the new work book to the teacher with a note:
"Dear teacher, I am returning this work book as it is not needed. I think language is important, as are facts, and Tommy did not 'vandalise' his work book. He was issued a book with the wrong name on it and when he drew your attention to this you told him not to worry about it. He didn't want a work book with the incorrect name on it, so he crossed out the wrong name and wrote the correct name underneath. He should not be punished, by having to redo his work in this new book, for something that was not his fault, so I have stuck two clean labels on the front of his original work book and written his correct name on it clearly and neatly. I am sure you will agree this is a pragmatic solution. I have to say, given that even basic resources are stretched in most schools, I'm surprised that a work book would be wasted for such a trivial reason. Regards,"

I disagree. He was not told not to correct it, so was not ignoing or disobeying an instruction.

This isn't what happened but even if it was; what's that teaching him? That it's okay to ignore errors, not speak up, you'll be punished if you highlight something that's wrong?

The teacher made a mistake, he's right to correct that mistake

That’s ridiculous of the teacher. Cut the pages out of the old book and stick them in the new one (although the teacher could easily have done that themselves). Hand it to them yourself and explain you won’t be having him waste his time for their mistake. They should know his name halfway through the school year, it’s just rude of them.

I wouldnt want to fuff with the new book at all. If absolutely necessary, print a big aenough label to go on the old current one.

Wrong. Re-read the salient point from OP's first post "He told the teacher his name was wrong on the label and was told not to worry about it, he didn't ask and so wasn't told not to correct it but decided to scribble out ‘Tom’ and write ‘Tommy’ below."