My daughter (7th grade) came home from school saying that a video was shown to students that included the following statements from the dean of students:
“Kind kids get good grades. Unkind kids get bad grades. Kind kids have friends. Unkind kids have little to no friends.”
I emailed the school and asked for the video to be reviewed and verify what was said by their dean of students.
It was verified this morning by a counselor that the dean did in fact say that. The counselor gave me the dean of students email while saying to me, “he used statistics and did site his sources.”
I emailed the dean of students about his message to the student body. He offered a meeting for us to all set down and watch that part of the video and “discuss” it. He also said, “I see your point about middle school students often interpreting information in very concrete ways, and I know that often a single exposure to a topic can sometimes lead to incomplete or unintended takeaways for students. Your and (child’s name taken out) perspective is important. Please know that your concerns have been heard and will be taken into consideration as we continue to reflect on how we teach/reteach our building wide expectations.”
My concern is that statements like this are not only false. But can also make a student internalize that they are “unkind” or bad. I feel strongly that this message the dean of students sent to children is not only developmentally inappropriate, but also potentially harmful and incorrect.
I want the school to issue clarification to all students.
My husband says it’s “sorry kid, your gpa fell below a 3.5… you’re an unkind child. Or, you have less than x amount of friends, so you’re unkind.”
This is just unreal!
AITA for demanding the school issue clarification and apologies?
NTA, he’s clearly not seeing the connection of “I got bad grades, therefore I’m unkind,” that some students would take (hell, I thought I was a failure if I got a B- in high school).