When we got home I opened her bag to look at her homework. Not only did I find a worksheet for writing numbers poperly, I found a note that reads as follows:
AnnaLaura had a small incident today in math class. Her pencil broke, and she started to cry. I offered her spare pencil from our classroom, and instead of taking it, she continued to talk about how she wanted her own pencil. We have a classroom rule that we do not sharpen pencils after the pledge due to distractions, therefore she needed to take my pencil in order to finish her assignment. She finally took a pencil, but instead of working, she started to talk to her neighbors about her pencil. I then had her take a break in Mrs. Plant's room. When she came back, math class was over, and she was out of time to complete her work. Please help her finish this assignment at home.
Let me tell you about her pencil. At the school Open House, she (and every other kid in the school) received a pencil and an eraser from their teacher. The pencils had nifty designs on them rather than being the boring yellow ones. AnnaLaura refers to it as her "special pencil." Knowing that she had her special pencil plus one other (unsharpened) pencil in her pencil case, I figured she didn't need any others...who has ever heard of a elementary class were you are not allowed to sharpen pencils after saying the Pledge (which we all know happens at the begining of school)?!?! How many pencils does this teacher think I should send with my almost 6 year old child? I'm sure we've all had days, especially when we were just learning how to write) where we had to sharpen a pencil 5 or more times in a day because the lead kept breaking. And what kind of 6 year old isn't going to be upset when she finds out she can't use her "special pencil" for the rest of the day? Never mind the fact that this is the first time she's had her own pencil to use in class. Good grief! Something tells me that this policy causes more "distractions" than allowing children to sharpen their pencils as needed. In case you're wondering, this is the teacher's rule, not the school's. I've talked to some other parents (whose children are in different classrooms) and they had never heard of such a thing either.
Needless to say, she now has 7 sharpened pencils in her box at school. I can only hope she doesn't go through all of them in one day. I am also going to buy a hand sharpener she can take to school with her. I just hope the teacher allows that. Oh, it probably doesn't need mentioning, but she is a first time teacher. Whoever suggested this "rule" to her should, in my opinion, have to sharpen all my kid's pencils with their teeth. One can only hope that this rule doesn't survive her first year of teaching.
Does this rule bother anyone else, or am I overreacting?
Since I don't want to leave a post with at least one picture....here's the kidlet with the puppy last month. Keep in mind that this is a 6 month old puppy next to a almost 6 year old kid.
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Update: Now that time has past and I've gotten to know AnnaLaura's teacher I just wanted everyone to know that I really like her. I still think that the whole no sharpening pencils thing is a bit off the wall, but she's great. Really. I mean it. AnnaLaura loves being in her class (and doesn't question the sharpening rule...at least, not that I know of) and I love knowing that she has such a kind and caring teacher. If she ever finds her way here I hope that she isn't offended or anything. I really really really like her. really.
