Teacher doesn't like my daughter

[Charlie2000]

My daughter is in yr8. She is a bright hardworking student who has received fantastic reports and was even awarded a prize for effort and achievement in yr7. At the end of last term she told me that she feels her teacher is picking on her. Apparently he has been telling her off for talking when she hasn't been, told she will be in detention. That she will feel his wrath and that she is showing off. I find it very hard to believe that she is being so naughty - she is a lovely girl who has NEVER had any negative comments in her reports or at parents evenings. To further complicate matters I know her teacher as I used to work with him and always felt he was a good teacher. My daughter says his attitude towards has changed recently - prior to this he was praising her and her work. What would you do? I don't want to make matters worse for her.

Well said giraffe. My experience has been exactly the same.

noble and IHeart I'm happy to accept that neither of you pick on the children you teach and I also never pick on or am unkind to those I care for. But I personally am under no illusions there are unkind health professional out there and in fact we know from numerous cases in the media that unkindness does occur so accusations should not be swept under the carpet or blame pointed at those we care for. As a profession you as teachers also need to accept that there are some pretty awful bullying teachers who do for reason often unknown pick on children. I would like to hope that in 2014 that gone are the days when children's complaints and worries are either ignored or told they are at fault, as the Jimmy Saville investigation has already shown and many other cases when children make accusations of abuse of any description and bullying by an adult in authority is abuse that in most cases the children are not be naughty they are genuinely being abused. As professionals and parents we must first and for most be advocates for the children we love, care for, teach otherwise we are failing them.

I think in the vast, vast majority of cases is it down to the child spreading their wings and pushing boundaries.

But not always.

In Yr6, my DD was constantly being told off by her maths teacher. She was trying to get two rowdy pupils behind her to be quiet so that she could learn - but these two were far wilier than she was and so did not get caught.

I'd have believed the maths teacher, only not one of her other subject teachers had anything to say about her behaviour.

After 1 term, the teacher transferred and DD had a new teacher. Oddly enough he recognised where the problem lay and there was no issue any more.

So keep a watchful eye.

[Hmm] my sexist Physics master certainly didn't like me. Girls were supposed to be sweet and quiet.

And in this case I have absolute objective proof, my sweet DF and me did a vile piece of A level HW together one weekend, it took us hours. She got a brilliant mark and I got told off for not finishing.

Neither of us had finished we couldn't do the last bit!

My Biology teacher wasn't overly fond of me either, I only had to breath to be in trouble. Unfortunately I was also the best biologist in the year, so he rather got egg on his face

Schoolnurse I think that's a really fair post too. Both points are important to bear in mind.

Teachers do pick on children, they take the DC who was daft enough to talk early in the year and use them as an example for the rest of the year.

Any teacher who claims not to have pupils they like more than others is lying, teachers are human and pupils are human.

DD2 knows this instinctively, she could wrap primary teachers round her little finger. She can do the same with any toddler within 30 seconds of meeting them. I'm not sure what that says about teachers.

DD2 can't, some teachers see beyond her dizzy, slightly too loud and socially awkward side and realize she is lovely, quite hard working and very bright. Others don't, they just find her fussy and annoying.

She's actually dyslexic and she's had to learn to pick up social cues, she doesn't do it naturally. So she was never deliberately naughty, she just took longer, in some ways, to grow up.

Nice generalisation there starball

And you're and Nobles comments weren't!

Whats dyslexic got to dp with being unable to read social cues.
Ds dyslexic and has all his teachers wrapped round his little finger.
Dd does in the most part, but she does talk far too much. She adds a lot to the class so gets away with it for the most part,so having one who is less tolerant of the chat means he hates in her eyes.

I was a bright child who was picked on by some teachers. And I deserved it because I was a total pain in the arse sometimes. Both my parents were teachers and when I moaned about it asked me what I'd done and did I really want them to have a conversation with the teachers about it. I didn't.

I'm a retired teacher now and had some sympathy with children testing the boundaries during my career but not a great deal. I was accused of picking on children but hand on heart I really never did, as the parents understood when I explained what had been happening.

I've taught with a lot of people in a long career and can only think of 2 colleagues who I felt did pick on certain children and did call them on it.

It's much rarer than some people think it is.

Some teachers are unfair. Some children are unfair. Most people, whether adults or children, are in the wrong sometimes and in the right sometimes. You are never going to know which is which unless you are prepared to listen to both sides with an open mind.