Teachers, especially Kindergarten teachers, should know better.
I knew this would happen. Since the very first week of the school year my daughter has been telling me how you don’t let her use the toilet when she asks to. You make her wait.
“After I finish reading this book to you.”
“After you pack up your desk.”
“Once we’ve completed our counting activities.”
Don’t you understand that your Kindergarten classroom is made up of five-year-old children who have very limited control over their bladders? Don’t you get the fact that they have only moments to get to a toilet once the urge hits?
You’ve either not had enough experience teaching infant classes or you have, and just don’t care.
Now my daughter has to carry the stigma of being the first child to wet themselves in your classroom. This is exactly what I was hoping to avoid because it happened to me. I wet myself in Kindergarten and the memory of it still burns.
I was sitting on the floor with the rest of the class as the teacher spoke to us. I put my hand up and told her I needed to use the toilet. It was almost lunchtime so she told me I'd have to wait a few minutes until the bell rang. So I followed the rest of my classmates who had walked to their bags at the back on the classroom to retrieve their lunchboxes. I remember the feeling of humiliation as it ran down my legs.
"Ewww, you wet yourself," one of the nastiest boys said loudly.
Now that same thing has happened to my daughter and it is all you fault.
You have been the cause of my daughter's humiliation during what is one of her formative years in school. What happens to her this year, during her first year of 'big school', in your class, will influence her entire relationship with school.
Thank goodness for my daughter's friends. Instead of telling you about her accident, she chose a special friend and told her. Instinct told her you wouldn't be on her side. That friend told you what had happened very softly and then offered to take my daughter to the school office where the beautiful ladies took very special care of her and made her feel okay about what had occurred.
When she told me about it, she was repeating all of their comforting words. "Mum, I wet myself in class today but it's okay because it happens. I can keep these shorts and underwear. And it's not a problem Mum, because it happens to lots of people and it's not a big deal."
Then she told me what you'd said.
"I saw your hand up but I didn't know it was up because you needed to go to the toilet. Next time you can stand up and tell me that you need to use the toilet."
Lame, lame, lame.
You job isn't just to teach my daughter to read and write and count and add. You're also meant to be looking after her while she is in your care.
I really liked you when I first met you. I was so relieved my daughter was in such excellent hands.
Don't worry, I haven't written you off yet, despite my fury. I just expect more of you. I expect you to care for her and protect her when she is in your classroom. Just do better. Because my daughter deserves better.
Have you had a bad experience with a teacher? What did you do about it?
This writer has chosen to remain anonymous to protect her daughter.
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