Trouble at Alden

Coco came home from school the other day in tears. That is certainly not the norm. He was upset over something his teacher had told him and that he felt reprimanded over missing a couple of assignments. He apparently had misplaced a worksheet just before XMas break. Then the first day back to school he misplaced a whole packet of math assignments. 12 units to be precise. According to Coco, when he asked for another packet, he was told no. There were no more copies. It is too expensive to make extra copies. When he asked what to do next, he was told to figure it out.
Now Coco is an outstanding student. I know to an outsider this sounds like the braggings of a proud Dad. But it's true. He has been in the top 3, if not the top student, in each of his grammar school grades. I am not talking about grades. It's grammar school after all. But class participation, helping other students. His reading and math are off the charts. But he's come out of his shell and been a class leader too. His past teachers have made that comment consistently.
Demi, of course, placed asked the teacher to call at once. Meanwhile, Demi as fuming. Who tells a 10 year old student to figure it out? Fueling the fire was other parents not having a great experience with the teacher currently and in the past.
It took a few days, but the teacher did call. Her version was different from Coco's. I am sure that to Coco, he feels his version is the truth. It probably seemed like that. But his teacher has a slightly different story, but a significantly different. She did say she used the words "figure it out" but "we will figure it out. " She had taken him aside, so as not to embarass him, and asked is something was wrong at home or at school. There were no extra copies of the packets because it is too expensive. It also came out that the help link for parents, to look at assignments and download them, does not work. But how do you know unless you are an active parent and advocate for your child? By active, I mean, you need to know what your child is learning at school and what activities they have. There are too many stories of kids saying their parents don't know what they do at school and don't care. Don't care? That is just sad. Sad for everyone.