urgent advice needed?

fairygodmother2

hi looking for some help and advise.
just got a new kid into my class, and the mother has now informed me that the kid is being brought up in an non - media house, so no tv set in the house and v. little computer usage so she does not want a tv set used in the classroom not only this but she does not want the use of tv characters anywhere in my lesson plans .i.e dora for colouring in or corporate images in the class room i.e mcdonalds on the school strip because of the anti globalisation stance in the house.

they are non-christians, dont belive in santa (going to cause arguements in this class!!), the child is very outspoken, opinionated and vocal although very bright and well socialised.

Slightly panicked about this as i would have used thomas series of number colour in sheets and short periods of cartoon time just as treats.
anyone come across this before or any advice?
this job is just getting wierder!:(:confused:

spurious

Ask her to supply colouring-in books she approves of.

smcgiff

If the child does not see tv etc how can they differentiate between say, Dora, and other unknown characters.

I would say to the parent that you have certain resources available to use. You could always suggest she contribute financially to fund other resources for the whole class - see how she likes that idea.

Seems unreasonable to me.

drusk

How dare she dictate what resources you should or shouldn't use. You should not have to alter your lesson plans to suit a parent's political views on globalisation and the media.

If the parent wants to be so particular about how her child is educated, then she should home-school her child. Using multi-media in the classroom is not only acceptable by teaching guidelines - it is actively encouraged. Do not deprive the rest of your students access to decent resources because of some lunatic's freaky need to wrap her child in cotton wool to save her from the evils of Dora the f**king explorer.

maynooth_rules

She has no right whatsoever to tell you not to use a very important teaching resource. She has a right to ask for her child not to be in the class when they are used but no right to dictate to you what you can and cant use. Whatever you do do not punish the rest of the class by not using the resources in questions. All the rest of your class do not deserve to miss out because of the stupid opinions of one childs parents

implausible

There is absolutely no way that you should have to change your teaching resources and methods to suit one child. She has chosen to send her child to your school, so while she may be entitled to some leeway as regards religion, she has signed up to your school's ethos and way of doing things.

Where is your principal in all of this? Surely s/he explained all of this to the parent when enrolling the child? You need to get your principal on board to explain to this parent (preferably in writing), it shouldn't be up to you to change your entire class to accommodate one child. This issue must be referred to somewhere in the enrolment policy, check it.

D.Mar

I agree with the above comments, she has chosen your school so she has to go along with your way of doing things (within reason). Her personal views, which are quite extreme in my opinion, should not dictate your class. I also think you would be depriving the other kids if you excluded media from the classroom. It's right that we get kids familiar with technology, it's an important part of our lives.

rainbowtrout

Don't go changing your resources for this parent. When she enrolled her child in your school she signed up to the school's policies. Again echoing what has already been said, she can remove her child for religion if she wants but she can't dictate how you teach every single lesson. And how is the child going to know what characters on your worksheets are TV based and which aren't? If you back down over one thing, you'll find there will be complaint after complaint over every other resource and piece of homework in time. How would the other parents of the rest of the class feel if their children were denied all these resources (that are often in short supply) simply because one parent disapproves?


You're obviously a primary school teacher, I would be asking the question of the parent on how she is going to police her child's socialisation with friends if she visits their houses and watches TV, DVD's, plays video games, goes on the internet. Will all the children have to censor their conversations in the playground so this child does not become exposed to the evils of Spongebob?

While it's probably good to have a child doing other things than being plonked in front of the TV all day, it doesn't mean media is a bad thing. Actually if the mother was that concerned she could allow her child to watch educational programs. Eg, think of all the amazing David Attenborough wildlife programs on BBC. I'd bet a lot of us would not be exposed to to that world if it were not for television. What's she going to do in Leaving Cert where they do Film studies as part of the curriculum? Refuse to do it on political grounds? Refuse to watch videos of Shakespeare's plays and Austen's novels?

There is a girl in Leaving Cert in the school I work in, she's Indian and her family do not allow her to watch TV or mix with students from school, they prefer her to follow cultural traditions and activities from home. She has huge difficulties in English because she's not culturally tuned in to the world around her because of her lack of exposure to TV and other such media. Her teacher asked them to write an essay recently on media influences on teenagers or something of that type and one of the things they had to write about was soaps. This girl managed to write 2 pages on 'Dove' as her favourite soap because she doesn't have any idea of cultural context and had no idea what soaps were.

Now I'm starting to go off on a tangent a bit but it is the same kind of situation. If the parent does not want her child doing the activities that the rest of the class partake in, she should provide activities herself. If you are showing a video or cartoon etc, you have two choices 1. not show the video - and I don't see why you should change 2. put the child outside the room - and you can't do that, so the child will have to sit at the back of the room and do alternate work. I'm guessing this is the first child in the family and the parent's are extremely idealistic, but as that child gets older, she will be exposed to all of these things regardless of how much her parents try to prevent them from entering her life.

The child may rebel in another 15 years time and spend 3 months on big brother just to get back at the parents!