Canon vs. The Meanie-Head Teacher

I'm an under-the-radar flyer. A not-rocking-the-boat-er. A go with the flow-er. A rule follower.

And when my name is called, I still assume I'm in trouble.

I hate being in trouble.

Canon, however ... I think he might have some trouble maker tendencies. An extra hefty dose of the Anderson Brat in him.

He got in trouble for hitting today. He didn't hit a kid; he's been really good about playing nice at school. Shockingly well.

He hit a teacher.

Well, he knocked her a little as he ran by.

If it'd been me and some kid, I would have put my hand on their shoulder and said, "Excuse me." Usually a kid will say that right back to you. If they didn't, I would say, "When we bump into people, we say, 'Excuse me.'"

She essentially demanded an apology, "Canon, you bumped into me, you need to say, 'I'm sorry.'"

I didn't see the event. I don't know what he did, whether he was being malicious or simply careless. I give people the benefit of the doubt. I don't like to make a big deal of things. I carefully pick my battles.

She decided this was her hill.

He's only gone to school for 3 days and no one has ever told him (or me) exactly what the school's rules are. Maybe a little "this is the rule" warning would have been sufficient ...

She pushed the issue, Canon shut down. She kept pushing and he got upset. He refused to look at her, yet alone apologize. She carried him to time out. He became hysterical. The Boss Teacher told him he could come to me. He ran over crying. The Other teacher tried a couple of times to talk to him; he couldn't look at her. I sat with him in this time out and tried to talk to him, explain what he had done and needed to do. He cried. A few minutes later she told me I needed to walk away or timeout isn't serving its purpose.

I mentally flipped her off.

Just so you know ... it's not just me. The Other New Teacher commented that the Other Teacher seems harder on the kids. As I was waiting for Canon to finish in the bathroom before leaving for lunch, the Boss Teacher came over. I smiled and said, "Canon had a hard time this afternoon." She sighed and said, "Well, one of our teachers thinks she has to make the kids behave. They will behave on their own for the most part." I raised my eyebrows, nodded, and sighed.

Thus the office politics begins ... I forgot about how certain personalities can make a job considerably more challenging. All part of the fun!