Confused.

[burns_erin]

Add me as being one who will be extra mad for you.

[Fractalsofhair]

I do not think that the situation is ideal, but 1 term with a low grade doesn't look horrible. One whole year with a low grade looks pretty bad. Plus, the class isn't even in an area where I want to major, and colleges can look at each quiz and test grade if they like.

My teacher, and most other people in my town, are astonished at the lack of "Care" I do to my hair/skin/face. It's not the teacher who has taught these ideals to students, and it's not unheard of in a lot of other towns for teens to be obsessive about their appearance. My teacher probably hasn't met a lot of other people who don't do these things, and since if you normally wear makeup and flat iron your hair, when you stop, for a few days, your skin and hair look bad even if they're healthy underneath, she probably is shocked I look tolerable to go out in public. The key issue with my teacher is that she does not believe I don't do those things and look remotely normal as a female human. Most of my peers and their parents have been similarly shocked at times. I know people from other towns who are just as shocked. A lot of people seem to think that if you don't spend 4+ hours getting ready each morning, you're going to look horribly ugly. That's not the case for everyone, but A LOT of women have a warped vision of themselves. I mean, I know I feel prettier when I have a blue streak in my hair, and when I don't, I feel like my pink toned skin is neon red, and then I take a pause and then look at myself again and realize that I don't really need a green concealer. A lot of people don't take that pause!

It would be interesting to record it, but as a minor, I think I could probably be arrested for recording her. It is her first child, and she's not exactly at all comfortable, and in the best of times has a shorter temper.

With my peers, they do get marked down if she sees them with their hair straightened and such.We don't meet every day, so it might not be the best option, but if she does not see a noticeable change, she does reserve the right to take points off.

Fiferstone-I've actually had similar events happen to me, before in class essays. In 7th grade, I was threatened with expulsion for reading Shakespeare(By a teacher who tried to get the school to actually act on it, and they didn't, and my mother did stick up for me that time). The principal laughed at it, but my teacher was not at all happy that I was reading such "hard material"(even though we were reading his plays in English class...) for free reading. I've also been told by teachers to not read ahead in math class when I brought up calc ideas in algebra 2 and geometry and did a pretty darn decent idea of the basics in it, though not so well on figuring it out, but for the general idea, it wasn't off as badly as it could have been. However, once I got older, my teachers viewed my rambles as a good thing, and not as a negative when I should be learning fractions as opposed to rambling about the slope of a curve.

[Fiferstone]

Fractals, unbelievable isn't it? You're d**ned if you do, and d**ned if you don't sometimes. Perhaps the compromise is to get out of this with what you can, and when she's safely turned in her final grades on you and has no more influence over your GPA, you let fly to the department chair about this assignment and your particular challenges and her unwillingness to understand. Not being nasty, but just dispassionately and matter-of-factly lay out for the Department Head the chain of events, express mild surprise that she was not able to suggest a way in which you could earn a full mark on the assignment, and leave it at that.

Might actually work.

I have another tale about something similar (advanced placement Latin), but that's for another time : )

[Ash]

I don't know what state you live in but here is a link of different states and recording laws.
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states.html
As far as I know tape recorders and telephone recorders fall under the same category.
http://www.ipiu.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3291

Just saying....

[Fractalsofhair]

Yep, it's totally illegal in my state. MA. http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states/massachusetts.html

Fiferstone-We don't have a department head any more. Budget cuts got rid of the small stipend they're entitled to as a head of the department, and as a result, since they can't change contracts, they simply got rid of the position. Luckily, she'll be gone in a few weeks(less than 2 months!).

Now, onto my experiment. No combing had absolutely no change on my hair. For the first day, it curled somewhat nicely, into a 2c-3a sort, but after that, it returned to a normal straight hair look. The only key difference I could note is that it was more frizzy at the end of the week, and when I finally combed it out, I shed a bit more hair than normal(normally I shed under 25 hairs per day. I shed probably about 300 hairs at the end of the week.), and it was much harder to comb out than usual. Also, my plastic comb caused crazy static in the shower, which is something I thought impossible.

[ericthegreat]

I'm sorry Fractals, I know you said no flaming of this teacher but I must say that this teacher of yours has lost her marbles. Now, this project that she is having you do is bizarre enough to say the very least, and that what she is telling the class to do is violating their very basic civil rights. You also should definitely in turn report this teacher to the principal or higher school authority for making a baseless accusation about you having supposed "mental problems". Have you spoken to your parents about this? I would not let this teacher's behavior slide, I know you don't want to seem like a troublemaker but the actions that she has taken has shown that she is not a stable person.

Honestly, if I were you I'd speak to your guidance counselor again and ask to be transferred immediately out of this class. This teacher clearly doesn't have it all together, and I would not subject myself to be in the class because clearly I would find it to be a disruptive environment after what she has done to you. In fact, I believe its even mandatory that if a teacher and a student have any kind of volatile relationship, that the student needs to be removed from that class.

[Fractalsofhair]

I've talked with my mum about it, and I have tried in the past to switch out of her class in the beginning of the year when she took off a huge number of points on in class essays for "spelling and grammar"(Meaning my handwriting in this case, as she explicitly said if I can't write in perfect print or cursive, and ideally cursive, she will presume I can't spell words like "The" and other very simple words, and that I have no idea of basic English grammar, even on typed essays(Which is crazy IMO, but it's to encourage people to always use spelling and grammar properly, even in in class essays.).), but that would require me to drop my math class(AP calc), which is something I am not willing to do, and it would require me to go into the lowest level of English in our school, as opposed to "Honors" level, which would look horrid to colleges. I have bad handwriting, and many teachers can't read it, but often I'm just asked to type an essay up if it's really bad. She will only be my teacher for a few more weeks. I'm thinking it's that she's very heavily pregnant, and in a bit of discomfort(I know she's said it's very uncomfortable for her to stand. She's a smaller boned woman, and my mum had similar issues with standing later in the pregnancy of me), and isn't probably the nicest person normally. Thankfully, the project is over!

[ericthegreat]

Still, if I were you I really wouldn't want to spend even an extra day in her class. Its clear to me that she won't even give you the kind of high grade that you would really want. If I could go back to school I would rather get 90s in a regular level class than simply barely passing in an advanced level class. She doesn't seem to be a very pleasant person to be around anyway.

[MsBubbles]

Originally Posted by Fractalsofhair

That would be interesting, but I worry the paper would view it as venting. I mean, what she's doing is perfectly reasonable.

No. It's not.

I hope you can get some much-needed help from your parents on this. As a parent of teens, I am shocked and saddened at what is happening to you.



And I wish you all the courage in the world to get your ducks in a row, your parents and other authority figures behind you, and to stand up to this way out-of-line teacher. You are a whole person and I'd love to see you expect to be treated as one.

[ZaBasDa]

Honestly, I would still probably bring it up to a local paper. If this happened around here, the local papers would love to print the story, just for something new and interesting, but it might be different there.

I've had teachers do similar things to me before, but I found people to help with the situation, even if it meant I had to go to the county school board and then the local representative for my area in the state legislature. But obviously you don't want to take that route. I'm sorry you've had to deal with this, but at least you'll be done with it soon.