Stupid Teachers

I hate some teachers SO much. The one who is the target of my extreme hatred today is Andrei's English -language teacher.
Before starting 1st grade, Andrei attended a small, privately-owned and owner-operated Montessori called "Zunita's School." Zunita is a licensed child psychologist with her BA in early education. The school serves ages 2-6 and is a combo day-care/pre-school/kindergarten. Andrei started attending when his mom found out about it from a neighbor. The prices were reasonable, the care was decent, and the facility was clean. This was a BIG change from the government subsidized day-cares and the random neighbors whom she had caring for him for the first 3 years of his life during the day (somehow leaving him with me during the day was never considered an option).
Zunita was great. She had a way of calling Jerly on her "issues" without sounding accusatory or rude. She was really patient with Andrei and helped him really work through a lot of his problems. Unfortunately, she didn't actually teach him anything academic. He left kindergarten with only a rudamentary understanding of phonetics (which is completely useless if you're learning English because it is most definitely NOT a phonetic language). He could, however, sing, dance, cook, care for a garden, and paint. Hmmm...
We tried to warn his 1st grade teachers that he couldn't read or write and they said it was no problem. We warned them that he had some emotional issues and a past history of violent outbursts. They just smiled and nodded. Then, the second week of school when Andrei had his first major meltdown he spit on his teacher and she FREAKED OUT. I know that this is a terrible, horrible thing to do, but come on. HE IS SIX YEARS OLD!!!! How seriously can you take anything a 6 year old does?
She immediately referred him to the school counselor (quacks!) who slapped an ADD label on him and told us we need to put him on ritalin. This pissed me off to like the zillionth degree. I won't go into my thoughts on ritalin, but let's suffice it to say I think the whole ADD thing is a bunch of crap.
Anyway, we asked her to please try some behavior modifications first and his teacher refused. She told us it was basically our fault that he misbehaved in school because we were too irresponsible and indulgent to put him on "needed medications." After a month of tense, pressured phone calls and weekly visits to the principal's office, she finally agreed to try it our way first. She started sending him home with a tracking sheet once or twice a week (supposed to be daily). She made sure to point out every single obnoxious flaw he had, but never mentioned any of the positive.
Sometime in January I got sick of only hearing bad things about my kid and I did a formal observation of him in class for the last hour and a half. During that time he tried to get her attention in a positive way 93 times (raising his hand, doing what he was asked, actively listening, volunteering, etc.) and 46 times in a negative way (calling out "teacher!" standing up to go walk over to her, then asking friends when she ignored him). She aknowledged his attention seeking behavior about 24 times, all but 2 of which were negative statements. She never once said "thank you," "good job," "nice try," or anything like that. I also saw her at one point physically pull a non-compliant child into the hallway.
Around this time Andrei got a new Spanish language teacher who listened to some of the advice we gave her about dealing with him. I also got Luis on board with homework and he started working at home. In about a month, Andrei learned to read and to write. His English language teacher thought that Andrei was put on ritalin and all of a sudden she began to work with him and he REALLY started to improve.
Let me repeat that- when she THOUGHT Andrei was on ritalin, all of a sudden she started sending home nice notes and tracking sheets with smiley faces instead of frowny faces. This was about a month before Luis actually caved and agreed to put Andrei on ADD Meds (due to the pressure from school ). Neither Andrei's mom, nor I think he needs to be on them.
Now here's the kicker. Yesterday I got an email from this teacher saying that Andrei's progress has stalled and that she can tell when the meds are wearing off in class and that we should put him on a higher dossage and get him into a special ed. program. I kind of want to give this b**** a piece of my mind and suggest that she take behavior altering meds. I am really convinced that she is still holding a grudge against him from the incident during the first week of school. What a loser. I hate her.
Anyway, he's going to be in a new school next year and maybe he can start off with a clean slate.
As for this teacher, I actually am going to send her the data from my observation along with a little note suggesting she really think about why she got into teaching in the first place. If she can't deal with my kid (I know he's an obnoxious pain in the butt, but he's not *that* bad!) I'd hate to see what she'd do to a kid who really had trouble at home - like the kind that are criminally neglected or physically abused- just because her feelings got hurt.