Yesterday I picked DD up from her class and was waiting for her to get down the stairs while standing infront of DS's room. He's 20 months and in a room with kids 1 1/2- 2 1/2. I heard a teacher yell at one of the boys, could have been my son but I didn't hear the name too clearly, and there is another boy with the same name. She told him to "stop that and come here now!" Then I heard her tell another teacher "he's really in the terrible 2s, he was pulling her hair." When I walked in everyone seemed happy, no little girl screaming, no little boy pouting, and the teacher quickly smiled and said "look mommy's here" so I'm not sure how serious the situation even was. I worked in a daycare so I know things happen that really shouldn't and I teach middle school now so I know how hard it is too keep your patience sometimes. It just really bothered me to hear someone yelling at a child, baby in my opinion, that wasn't their's so harshly.
I would assume if someone was screaming at your kid you'd also be upset, so I wont ask that, but do you think this is just something that happens or is it something I should bring up with the director? I've never heard the kids being spoken to like that in the past, but alot of times they see me on the video and have DS ready by the time I get down with DD, so they know to be on their best behavior.
Re: DC no big deal right?
This is tough. I'd actually have to hear what was said and how she said it to know how I'd react.
I often use a stern voice in my daycare setting, but over a ten year career I can count the number of times I'd actually yelled on one hand. All of those instances were with older children and the tone was employed to get their attention when I was being deliberately ignored. I've never screamed.
On occasion I've had a parent complain about how I've spoken to a child, but usually they were the kind of parents who never told their kid no and spoke to them with a lot of rising intonation. Every piece of instruction was a question. "Ok Sally, ready to go? It's time to go Let's put out coat on. Do you want to put your coat on?" When I want a child to do something I use a low, slow tone and make an imperative statement. "Sally, it's time to go home now. Get your coat and put it on please" It always works and most of my clients are amazed by it's effectiveness, but some people think it sounds mean. Sorry, this is kind of a tangent, what I'm getting at is that what is a stern voice to me might be yelling to you. It's relative, you know?
If it was the end of the day, chances are the teacher was stressed and tired and suffered a momentary lapse of judgment. I'd also try to observe and see if it happens again, but if your child seems happy to go there it's probably fine.
If it does, I would go to the teacher directly rather than escalate to the director- I would only escalate to the director immediately in the event of a safety hazard. Just ask for a private conference and express concerns calmly. If it continues after that, then go to the director.
Totally agree. Maybe the kid who was being yelled at was hurting another kid or doing something dangerous. Totally appropriate.
But I'm a person who doesn't believe in putting up with much crap from kids. IMO, they need to be taught to be respectful. Period.