ABSTRACT
My second grade teacher was the one that the other kids did not want. She was very strict and considered mean by my peers. Until that time I had been used to being favored by all my teachers and had enjoyed school. My teacher in second grade did not allow us to write on the board while we were waiting for the bus. She also did not like my friends and me to help her to pass out papers. I couldn't understand why she didn't want our help, but mostly I remember being scared. Second grade was the only time I would try to fake being sick in order to stay home from school. (Amelia)
In second grade I had this really mean art teacher. Her name was Mrs Crockett. No one liked her. \X'Tell, one day Timothy Grady spilled green paint all over my new shirt. I was devastated. I told the teacher on him and she yelled at me! She told me that it was my fault. She then told me that I did not care about my artwork. The reason I didn't care was because we had such a mean teacher like her! (Anne-Marie, Ursula's informant)
Viewed from children's perspectives, teachers and school may appear in ways that stand in stark contrast to adults' perspectives, as well as to their intentions. Children may experience the little trials of childhood when they meet with discrepancies between what is presented at home and at school and between teachers' perspectives and their own. They may be troubled by school rules and procedures and by relations with teachers. They may see themselves as victims of teachers' shortcomings and they may experience embarrassment and humiliation. When adults are unaware of the grounds of children's distress, and when adults apply and act in terms of their own inaccurate formulations, adults' efforts to help and to console children are likely to be ineffective.
