Monday, January 12, 2009

In which my expectations are violated

This morning I took T in for his first day of school.  I was really looking forward to said first day, since he had been to the school several times, really liked his teacher and would give me a chance to work on some things around the house (namely, converting the office into his "big boy" room).  Anyhow, the morning went smoothly, and we got loaded into the car with lunch, diapers, wipes, sheet, blanket, flat giraffe and an extra set of clothes.  We walked in, said a cheery hello to the director, and headed in to the classroom.  The director guided us into ... a class I'd never been in.  "Oh," she said, "The owners decided to split the classroom into 2 rooms since the kids are such widely varying ages" (18 months - 3 years). "T is going to be with Miss Newteacher instead of Miss Weloveyouteacher."  And away she went.

'Scuse me?  A phone call would've been nice.  Miss Newteacher might be wonderful, but I don't know Miss Newteacher.  I've never met Miss Newteacher. I don't know anything about Miss Newteacher.  OK, I thought, let's see how this plays out.  We walk in and meet Miss Newteacher.  She apologizes for the lack of communication and proceeds to tell me about her background.  OK, she used to run an in-home childcare center and she has a background in early childhood education. Check.  Cheerful and good with T. Check.  Kids of her own who now attend at T's new school. Check.  Will be working with Miss Weloveyouteacher and combining the classes a couple times a day. Check.  So I decide to make lemonade.  I spent about 45 minutes with her, getting used to her and getting to know her.  I told her about T and anything acidic (poor, poor baby bum).  I told her about Flat Giraffe and naptime.  And then I told my baby bye bye.  As per usual, I got "bye bye", a kiss, and then a dismissal signaled by his attention to the toy nearest his gaze.  

Then I found the director.  "I'm so sorry," she said.  "This was a complete oversight on my part. I really thought I had notified all the parents of the change."  I told her in no uncertain terms that I was unhappy to not be notified of the change before I walked in this morning.  However, I would see how it went.  I did choose this school, after all, because I liked the teachers (most of whom I had met before) and the policies, screening procedures and safety of the place.  After a little more discussion, I felt pretty mollified.  I'm going to pop in around naptime to see how it goes (and because I forgot to tell the teacher that he likes to have the blanket on his, but not over his feet).  The director also told me to consider this week a gift from them as an apology and a chance to make it up to me. "I won't take your money until I'm sure that you're satisfied," she said.

The jury is out.

1 comment:

Becky said...

Well, it sounds like they tried to do the right thing. If you like most of the teachers they've hired, there's no reason to mistrust the new one.

 
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