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?

Put a sticker over the top and tell the teacher what you have done. No need for a new book. What a ludicrous waste of time and resources.

Seems too much to have to rewrite, but you should have notified her of the fact he hates his name and wants to be called something else.

I think op is saying the old book has a sticker with the wrong name crossed out and the correct name written on the book underneath - so just swapping the stickers over won't work.

I would get a bigger sticker to cover the bigger area on the old book and write the correct name on that sticker.

No way would I do what the teacher is requesting.

@babynot so he’s done the requested work in the book given to him. If he hadn’t have written his name on it - would he still have been tasked with writing it in a new book?

if not - the teachers being petty IMO.

Marylou62 · Today 18:11

God this is awful.. I'm 62 and still remember the teacher insisting she knew my name better than me...

My daughter had this. Her teacher was called Mrs. Riddle, she pronounced it Ri-dell She was 7.

I told her to call her Mrs. Riddle until she stopped mispronouncing her name. She got really angry and gave her Hell and tried to make her pronounce it Ri-dell and took her to the headmaster, who gave her a rocket and asked why she was cheeking her.

She explained that I'd told her that until Mrs. Riddle stopped deliberately mispronouncing her name, it was Mrs. Riddle.

The pair of them spoke to me when I collected her and complained that she'd been rude. I replied, "Mrs. Riddle, I've told you twice how to pronounce it, but you've decided not to." The head wasn't impressed with her.

The Hell would i make him do that.

I'd be sending both books back and telling the teacher they can relabel the original book with his CORRECT name.

I'd also be backing it up with an email to the SLT about my thoughts on it.

My mom just suggested swapping the book covers.

Plenty of teachers would think this is absolutely nuts.

I would reply and say no because the name was wrong. Unless he wanted a nickname and the name is his full name. Then the teacher is being a dick but I'd be wary of making a fuss and the (clearly ridiculous) teacher might double down during school time.

Photocopy the pages and stick them in the new book :-D

It is absolutely is a hill to die on, i agree.

My kids both have 'not-common' spellings of names, think Jonathan instead of Johnathan and Clare instead of Claire type things that are specific to their heritage.

The teachers CONSTANTLY spelled their names wrong, and i pointed it out every time.

If his name is Thomas, it should be written as Thomas, not Tom. I wouldn't accept a name with an incorrect name on it as an adult, why should they as kids?

Maybe... Or maybe the teacher is an arsehole? It does happen you know.

One teacher took a shocking level of dislike to me towards the end of year 6. My friends still mention to this day how much of an unprofessional cunt she was.

I have slightly uncommon first and last names. People regularly spell and say them wrong. I never correct anyone, except when they have to be exact for some official purpose. My first name is also shortened, occasionally even lengthened, in various ways. Again, I just happily go along with it. I can't imagine constantly correcting people. In fact, I would note that it sounded more 'correct' to them the other way.

My son would have done the same. He hates people using his full name as we’ve always used the shortened version but wanted to give him the full version so he has options when he’s older. Think along the lines of we called him Edward but use Teddy, full name would look better on a CV type situation. However, when naming him we didn’t realise he was autistic and is now very fixed on his abbreviated version 🙈🤣

i'd say school books count as something official.

one of my kids chooses to use a shortened version of her name and refuses to acknowledge the full version.. its her name, her choice, and her school respects that, so uses her preferred version on everything ,including her records.

If her school and its teachers of 3k pupils can manage it, no-one else has a leg to stand on.

If you choose to let it slide, that is on you.

... and if anyone wants the exhaustion of continually correcting people for an unintuitive spelling, that's on them.

Peel sticker with correct name on and put on old book like others suggest.

Then email teacher with miss spelt name Smythie instead of Smith like someone else suggested and add;

I have taken the initiative of using the new sticker which has the correct spelling of my son's name and put it on the original book.

He will not be repeating the work you requested.

You described his great initiative as vandalism which I was quite disappointed at. Please refrain from calling him from the incorrect name.

Regards

Tommy's mum.

I didn’t see your corrections, apologies.

It probably is the scribbling out rather than crossing out neatly that's the issue?

I remember having to use a ruler to cross out neatly!

Former TA here. When I started, kids would write their own names on their books, it looked nice and authentic. Then it was decided to ‘improve standards’ by using labels…. I got it down to a fine art so I didn’t waste any sheets. Some TAs were known to hoard boxes of labels, such was the importance of these labels! I would always, always double check from the list of names we were given before printing but occasionally there would be changes. Names are important, children want to be called by their name, it’s theirs, it is part of their identity so if a mistake had been made, we would have said something like, “We are so sorry but don’t worry, we will get another label printed out by tomorrow.” We would never have expected a child to copy out work into a new book, what a waste of precious time and resources.

Primary schools sound fucking ridiculous if SLT are fannying about with whether things are stuck in straight or not and whether labels are printed. How is that improving education?

As a secondary teacher I think the only thing I really objected to on the front of someone's exercise book was a bunch of penises. I stuck labels over those.

write a note back and spell the teachers name wrong. Utterly ridiculous waste of a workbook too. Teacher IBVVU.

Why do people seem so nervous to stand up for themselves or their children?

if this were me I would go speak to her in person at drop off in the morning and say “ NO he will not be doing that because of your mistake, you will print out another correct sticker and stick it over the incorrect name or leave the book as is or you can copy out the work but he will NOT be doing that and don’t you dare ask him to when I’ve gone!, and for the record his name is X please call him by that and proof read your own work before meting out arbitrary punishments”

This is important, take the morning off work if needs be. By not speaking to her you leave him open to her punishing him!

Teacher here, honestly, I'd just tippex it and write the correct name on the label and apologise to the child. This is ridiculous. Do not make him rewrite it. I'd be furious if this was my child. So silly.

Genius

Oh yes I remember doing that once.

Having to fold the book to reach he middle with the stapler!