After last week’s introduction to camp, I’m happy to say that no one has been ejected from camp. Yet.
On Wednesday morning, I saw Cordy’s after-care teacher and told her that I thought Cordy would do well now that she understood the routine. The teacher, however, was unconvinced and again tried to talk me out of leaving her in after-care. She yet again mentioned that Cordy needed other kids to play with because she was lonely. I assured her that Cordy loves to play by herself.
And then she said, “It’s not right for a child to be that upset. You didn’t see how she was on Monday. I’ve never seen anyone that upset before. I’m amazed they were able to carry her to the room.”
I was unimpressed. “Was she bleeding?” I asked.
“Uh, no.”
“Then she wasn’t that upset,” I explained. “When she’s so out of control that she hits her head on things until she bleeds, then call me. THAT is her ‘really upset’.”
“Well, you’ll be home today, right? I’ll call you to come get her if she has any problems.”
I rolled my eyes. “I hope you’ll try to work out the problems BEFORE calling me.” And with that, I left.
As I expected on Wednesday, after I had a long chat with Cordy about what to expect from the after-care routine, and after the teachers decided they would take her directly inside instead of to the pick-up area, Cordy had a fabulous time. When we went to pick her up, she was sitting quietly in the room with a teacher beside her, drawing picture after picture and describing what she was drawing.
They reported that she had no issues at all that day, and really enjoyed the afternoon. See? I know my kid.
The next morning, I saw the after-care teacher again, smiled sweetly and said, “I hear she had a great day yesterday! I told you it would all work out!”
No smile in return. Instead, she frowned and said, “Well, she didn’t have a fit, but she was clearly bored with no one else to play with.”
Whatever, lady. It must suck to be someone who can never be happy.
I spoke with a friend who works there, and she told me that this particular woman teaches kindergarten and is used to working with kids who have been in the daycare system since they were little. These kids know how the system works and give her few problems. Someone like Cordy doesn’t fit in with her idea of how children work.
On Friday, we had thunderstorms moving through Columbus at drop-off, and so all of the kids had to start the morning inside. Cordy was not happy with the group circle time inside, and Aaron had to stay with her for awhile while she cried from the change in routine and all of the noise caused by the echo in the room. She eventually calmed down and had a good day.
The humorous end to the week? On Friday, there were two children with Cordy in after-care.
And what was she doing?
Sitting quietly by herself, looking at a book.
My warrior princess is going to do just fine at camp, in spite of those who would rather she not be there because she’s different.
Go Cordy! I’m glad she’s doing well!
I love the approach you’ve taken with this teacher! She’ll learn that you’re not going to be scared away by some rude comments. I can’t believe this lady is a teacher.
And yay for Cordy!
That aftercare woman sounds like 1. A total Debbie Downer and 2. Totally inflexible. Why is she even leading the aftercare program if she doesn’t want to work with kids?! I would think that having only one kid in aftercare would be a blessing, because you’d be able to get to know them and really spend time playing and having fun with them.
Rachael,
Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want just one or two kids in the after school program – because she’ll have to spend time with them and have to play with them.
You go, Cordy. Be yourself girl. Different is good.
Ugh.
Good for you though. Do you hear how strong you sound about this? You should be proud of yourself for knowing your daughter and knowing what she needs.
Good for you for standing up to that teacher. Sounds like someone needed to. She needs to learn that not all kids want constant stimulation.
I don’t have ASD, and I did that sometimes as a kid. I’m an only child and when I would visit my friend who has 5 siblings, my mom would come and find them running around after each other and me happily playing with their dollhouse or reading a book alone.
Sometimes every kid has had too much. And so what if that happens faster for Cordy than other kids? The teacher is the grown up, she can learn to adapt.
I hate it when people who think kids should be robots get into education. Wrong career path, honey. Good for you and Cordy for sticking it out.
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LOL! Don’t ya love irony?
Just wondering if TweedleDea’s comment counts as “Out-of-line” and delete worthy? Seems mean- spirited at best, since you were there, and you would certainly be able to determine if the woman was “concerned” or not.
TweedleDea – Unfortunately, there’s a lot of nuances of behavior that don’t come through when writing, and I guess that’s my weakness as a writer showing though. It’s hard to get across the disgust in the teacher’s voice or her attitude. She clearly came across as someone who wanted nothing to do with my daughter, simply because she is different.
This same woman told me the first day that she’s never encountered a difficult child that she couldn’t handle, and then later the same day essentially told me she couldn’t handle my daughter and has since implied that no teacher of “typical” kids should have to handle her. After days of nothing but negative feedback from her, I’m a little tired of it.
It just makes me giddy to see her prove them wrong. I wonder if aftercare lady was left to play by herself too often as a child…
Good for you to stick up to that teacher! I work in daycare and if Cordy is the only one, the teacher might be upset because if Cordy wasn’t there she wouldn’t have to be either. But it’s her job to be there even if it is only for Cordy!