My Daughter Hates Middle School

What do I do if my daughter hates school?

There could be a lot that is correct in the first reply that said the teachers were not doing their job, but a lot that’s not. Blaming the teachers may or may not be fair. As a teacher I have had this question put to me many times by parents. They come to me and say, “She doesn’t want to go to school. Can you think of any reason?” It took many years before I realised just how bad bullying was. Now I know it’s the reason most of those girls did not want to go to school. I did do my job by talking with the child, but I was no more successful than the parents, who were also doing their job, at finding out what the problem was. Most of the bullying happened in the playground or in places where I couldn’t see it.There are other reasons your child may not want to go to school. Things start to change at that age. Children who previously had no troubles with the work are suddenly finding it difficult. They feel like they are failing.Another possibility is that the friendship dynamics might be changing. This happened to my own daughter at that age. She had loved school before that. Happily, things worked out and she loves it again now.You need to talk to her and ask her to be open with you. Assure her that there will be no repercussions for her, only help. Talk to the teachers. Talk to her friends. Monitor her work. See if she is making less effort than she used to, or if her work is untidy. These indicate either a change in attitude as she approaches adolescence or a developing morale problem.It could be something else altogether. My bet, from many years of experience, however, is that it is bullying.Problems can be solved, but they need to be defined and analysed first.

My daughter is in grade 1, and hates school, she told me that she misses me when she is there, and she refuses to go daily to school. What should I do?

Have you discussed this condition with your daughter’s teacher, both with your daughter’s presence and without?Is your daughter a single child who has not felt comfortable in making new friends? Was there bullying by one or two mean kids in her class?Have you asked your daughter to describe her ‘a day in school’ for you? If she’d talk to you about everything that happens to her in school - starting from as soon as she gets there till she leaves - you might be able to identify problems.You could on occasion take a day off from work to be the classroom mom for a day to observe - to show your daughter that you miss her when she is in school too - and to show her that you like other kids in her class and her teacher too.She might be trying to get your attention on matters that are not related to school at all. Are there any other possible reasons that she is afraid of leaving you for a few hours?Go down the chain and check every connecting point. 1st grade is a precious age. It takes lots work. But if she start liking school - after you solved the puzzle - she will have a happy path forward.

Why do my middle school classmates hate math?

My brother had a terrible time with math. For instance, he could not get the idea of fractions. My parents were totally inept, totally unable to break things down and explain them so that he could understand. Part of his problem may have been that my father took time to explain the money system to me, e.g., two quarters equal half a dollar, and so forth, but he may have failed to take equal care with my brother. My grandmother, who had been a primary school teacher when she was in her 20s, was also unable to explain math. I think all of them had been educated by rote. As a ten year old (?) I was better able to explain things to him than they were. I had been taught pretty much by rote too, but I had worked it over in my mind until I understood what was really going on.I never had a math teacher who was good at teaching how to think about math until I was a physics major at Stanford. The first trimester calculus teacher was a very nice lady who did calculus problems at warp speed on the blackboard, asked the engineering students crowed in the front two rows, “Does everybody understand?” and then charged on to do the next problem.In my second semester I had a teacher who had come from South America. I think he must have been a Ph.D. candidate in math. He was wonderful.If I had been taught from scratch the way he taught, I think I might have learned to love math. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have him the third trimester because of scheduling conflicts. I ceased being a physics student. My math background dragged me down.My guess is that your classmates don’t know what they are doing when they do math. They are people who have been taught by rote, perhaps.Get a copy of Max Wertheimer’s Productive Thinking. He may help you and your classmates think about math in a more productive way. It’s a wonderful book that nobody knows about. There must be copies on-line or in libraries.

Why do Hispanic kids in middle school call my daughter "whitey" and "gringo" when she is actually 1/4 Hispanic?

Your daughter is called racist names, based on her skin color, because racism is alive and well in America. The blatant lie that racism can only occur from those with less melanin towards those with more melanin is responsible for the dangerous proliferation of race hate in both directions.As a parent, if the racist harassment continues, I would handle it with school authorities. In this racism obsessed culture, the time is long overdue for ALL racism to be seen as the morally repugnant attitude that it is.As a side note, I was a minority of European descent in the Rio Grande Valley. I could not get a job, because I could not speak Spanish adequately and was frequently the target of racist terms by the racial majority of that area. Until all racism is decried for what it is - hate based on skin color - this is only going to grow. Additionally, active race hate against those who are white is being actively fomented as we see courses on “White Privilege” now being included even at a middle school level. This is dangerous and morally wrong, and the consequences can be seen in the growing divisions in this country.