Tales from the Steppes

2006-05-24

7:32 a.m.
Wednesday, May 24

Johnny Turk he was waiting, he primed himself well,
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell
- Priscilla Herdman

I know, very cheery. But it's what came up on Pandora, so that's what it is.

I had an interesting conversation with the EM's vice-principal by phone yesterday. It seems that she had in fact reported the incident factually, without bias. It is not exactly that I doubted her, more that I was reserving judgement. I have had too much experience with 'things' happening between the mongols and each child presenting the incident as being completely one-sided. "I was just sitting here and Mongol X hit me. For no reason at all." Yeah right. But in this particular case, this is essentially the situation. I have relayed my concerns, the school has said they will address them at the very least by making sure that the girls are not in any classes together next year.

The cool part of this whole problem is that the EM handled the situation with great maturity. She did not return the hostility, she spoke up for herself in a non-confrontational way, and reported the problem to the correct authorites the way she had been told to. The vice-principal was very complimentary of both her maturity, demeanor, and manners. While it does not fix the problem with this other child, it certainly makes me proud of how well she dealt with this bully.

One of the things I have noticed is that a side-effect of having multiple children, spaced relatively closely, gives you an advantage as a parent in some ways. You get to observe the way your child interacts with other children on a near constant basis. So you cannot fool yourself and say "Oh, my child would never do that. Not my precious little sunspot." Admittedly, it is a different interaction than a peer-to-peer relationship, but at least it gives you more of a clue. It seems to me that there needs to be a balance between supporting and advocating for your child and making sure that you actually understand the situation, not merely the situation as your child sees it.