It's been a week. Yesterday we had an incident that upset the entire faculty. We had a little person spit on twelve children. We called the family to send the child home. The family was not keen on our sending the child home and insisted that the child be sent home at the regular time. I insisted that if the child was not picked up within 30 minutes, I would suspend the child on Friday. I told the parent that the incident was not just a behavior problem. The problem was a misdemeanor and was considered assault. At that point the parent blamed the other children in the school for her child's spitting.
In my days of rearing children, I always took my child's side no matter what until I learned the bottom line truth. If it was my child's action, I took action. I found out very early that blaming other children is cowardly and unbecoming to an adult. Blaming the other children only encourages continued problems with a child who behaves in this manner. Putting the blame on the correct culprit is the object of good parenting. Understanding the issue or issues is also a parent duty. Understanding your child and seeing him or her in the right light is the first problem to solve.
Needless to say, the child has been withdrawn. The Garden School is the culmination of Edith and my life's work. At the same time, it is also the work of the other ladies and gentleman we work so closely with at the school. Our teachers are exhausted with giving all they can to our community, and I salute each and every one of them for a beautiful effort every single day. So I promise our community, the children, the parents who bring their children to the school, and our teachers that we will not tolerate a child who decides to separate from the community and spit on the others.
Judy
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