How Typical.....

How incredibly typical...Contacted council to lodge complaint regarding vilification of my child by parents (and their children) and requested that they send out a newsletter/info pamphlet advising benefits of inclusion for all children, also info regarding their stance on discrimination and EEO info. Got palmed off back to teacher for her to put it in the newsletter...

1. The teacher is on sick leave till the end of the week and the Team Leader would have known that when she spoke to me
2. The teacher has enough issues with the parents right now regarding their perception that the additional needs kids ( and parents ) receive more than their fair share of the teachers time...Her putting this in the teachers newsletter would really set it off
3. The incidents are occurring outside of the kinder jurisdiction...Pick up and drop off times, parents talking nastily about the kids elsewhere (remember six degrees of separation??)THEY ARE NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER.

I really have to wonder where they find such people...Talk about handballing. I will be calling this TL back and telling her how it is and what I want done..This is getting beyond a joke when kids are name calling in front of their parents without correction and I just get an inane smile and shrugs of 'what can you do?'...I'll tell you what you can do is teach your...nah lets not go there..

Mr 5 has a much improved pencil grip now and despite the fact he's yet to be tested and will probably not score in the range to qualify for specialist school...I am sure he'll be OK. I plan to commence him on learning to read phonetically (how we learnt 10-20 years ago) so he's ahead of the others at the start of school and if he lapses will not fall behind too much.

I FINALLY received a reply from DET regarding SLD funding, despite my letter being specific and not general. I received a standard "spin doctored" response which addressed none of my letters issues...After FOUR months and god knows how many drafts it's a wonder any one still knew what the original letter was about...Come to think of it ...

So I will be ringing (not writing) again for specific answers to my questions, like why is John Munro (Melb. U) cited as the person who developed the new whiz bang Language Disorder Program, but he refuses to comment on it and says "it has nothing to do with his work" HELLO..You supposedly developed a program which has placed thousands of SLD kids outside the realm of individual funding and this has nothing to do with your work....Yeah right because YOU ARE NOT A SPEECH THERAPIST OR PATHOLOGIST, you are an educator of educators , thrice removed from the realms of the REAL WORLD of teaching because you live within academia. When was the last time you stood before a class of kids and taught? And a class with SLD kids? YOU HAVE NO F%$#@$% IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a nicer note ..has anyone seen Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy ??(got DVD from os)or even into "the bard of the eighties"?? I thought it would be hard for anyone who's not read the book/s to follow but it was good to see it completed after all this time..hoping they do the whole series. I got Miss 8 into it and offered her my books which she says she'll try after she attempts the Harry Potter series.