We Need Supernanny!

Where to start? Well, I asked for the video tape of Aidan's classroom. It was worse than I expected but more on that in a minute. As we were leaving the school we happened to run into another parent who had also requested a video due to the fact that her child has been out of control. She shared that a third mom had indicated that their daughter was also not behaving. I was very curious and we exchanged numbers so that we could confer. We're forming a coalition.

And then we went home to watch the video. The overview is zero discipline, zero scheduling, zero curriculum, complete chaos. That pretty much sums up Aidan's day. What I think they might consider discipline is in the form of yelling at the kids. Here are some quotes from the teachers and my assessment of each:

Quote #1: "Aidan, you butt needs to be in that seat! When your daddy gets here I'm gonna tell him what you did!" Hmmm...how about give him a time out or not allow him to participate in an activity. You've just taught my son that he can do whatever he wants and you won't do anything about it except yell.

Quote #2: "What are you doing? Who took the clothes off of that doll? You are not supposed to do that! Who did it? Did you do it? You? What does Ms. Becky do to you when you take the clothes off your doll? That's right. She takes it away!" Hmmm...the clothes are removable because that's a developmentally appropriate thing for kids to do. And why, with all the other poor behavior that I've witnessed on that tape does the teacher choose this to focus on for 5 minutes? This to me has a weird religious flavor to it.

Quote #3: "Why? Because I said so, that's why. You don't ask me why!" Hmmm...I think this speaks for itself.

OK, so these are the three most memorable quotes but I could go on for hours typing all the problems in the classroom yesterday. No one got a time out, there was nothing for the kids to do, the bored kids were yelled at for doing anything that they took it upon themselves to do. It was just complete chaos and at one point a kid was manhandled. We have our answers to why Aidan is not doing well at home. No discipline, no structure, nothing productive for 8 hours of his day.

First thing we did was round up the other parents that we know. We tracked down the parents of the kid who was manhandled so that they can see the tape for themselves and see what they think. I cannot imagine that any parent would think the way the kid was handled would be OK but I could possibly be wrong. I'm pretty sure our next step will be a big sit down with the director and the teachers with the videotape after all of the parents have had an opportunity to view it.

To tell you the truth, I'm pretty much in utter disbelief that anyone could be so bad at running a classroom. I get that it's hard to handle eleven 2 year olds. I get that not everyone has the skills they need to take this type of thing on. I get all of that. But these are childcare workers. They are supposed to have training in the basics of discipline. I saw absolutely no evidence that any teacher in that room (and there were 3-- far better than the legal ratio) has any inkling of knowledge about how to pull this off. None.

Now for the kicker. We pay $6675 per year in tuition. This number does not include random other expenses like fund raisers, donations, class pictures, etc. The University of Kentucky charges $3548 per semester. I'm certain that our other random donations throughout the year account for the $400 difference between these two, making our childcare cost about equal to a year of college tuition. I want some quality childcare. And I will get it. Soon.