Z's teacher - a rant

you have been warned, if you don't want to read about ranting i suggest you leave now...RUN!!!

alright, on friday when i went to class w/Z & he turned in his homework the signoff sheet wasn't signed & his teacher wasn't happy. i had asked her if he was supposed to be able to read by now & she said yes that most of the class could. she asked if he had gone to summer school, i told her no, that he wasn't recommended although we thought it would have benefited him. so over the weekend i sat down w/Z & had him read his little books from school. i think he finally got the whole sounding out thing instead of just guessing random words.

the signoff sheet is the parent's signature that the child has read all the books she sent home. yes, books. although they are little, 6 to 10 pages & they are simple, 4 to 6 words on a page, they are books & she sents about 6 home each monday.
I understand that if a child CAN read, they could probably go through all these books each night in less than 1/2 hour.
HOWEVER, if your child CAN'T read, one little 6 page book can cause vast amounts of fustration & tears for the parent as well as the child.

& let us not forget about the other homework that has to be done. a few pages of writing exercises, that's no problem. a few pages of math homework - oh & get this, it's F-ing word problems! for first grade! i know adults who can't do word problems! can we focus here? can we do math without words? how about a sheet with just numbers? when you make it word problems HE HAS TO READ? so guess what? we are reading lady who thinks i'm not doing my part! we're also crying about the reading! it's not that we aren't trying!

so what set me off you may be wondering?
last night, Monday, Z & I get home, i tell him to get his homework out of his backpaper & his pencil box so we can get started. i spread out all the worksheets & tell him to put them in the order he wants to complete them in. then i notice there's no books. then i look at the signoff sheet & notice the teacher has changed the acknowledgement statement from the book list to "i have read to my child 20 minutes every night".

so do i think this is directed at me? yes.
i'm pretty sure she thinks i don't read to him & therefore he hasn't learned to read & he's having a really difficult time learning. she doesn't know how much i DO read to him. even the counselor told me Z told him how much he loves that i read to him every night. i don't sign her sheet because he can't read the books. i'm not going to sign it so he can have a treat & she can feel good about herself if it's not the truth.

oh & i called her about the missing books. she said she put them in his folder herself (i'm not sure who else would), but another parent called saying they were missing their set as well. so i explained that i wanted her to know we hadn't received them so she could be sure to send them home today beings we were almost finished with the worksheets.