20 March 2010

Schoolground politics

This is a drawing that one of Ella's best friends at school made a couple of days ago.



The blond girl in the picture is Ella, the other one is the friend. The drawing worries me on a number of levels. Combined with the stories about the way the girl treats Ella. The girl's tactics to control Ella usually involve crying and threatening to tell the teacher. The latter is what really gets to Ella, which I think has a lot do with a bad experience at daycare last year.

I try my best to convince Ella to stand up to this girl, but I think it may be time to get the teacher on board. All I would want her to do is to assure Ella that she will not jump to conclusions when the friend 'dobs on her' but will give Ella a fair go. Because I am confident that there isn't anything to "tell".

I am very proud that my girl has a solid set of morals and values at the age of 5. And I can't just stand by while some other child is trying to take advantage of that and Ella feels powerless to defend herself. My aim is always to give her the skills to deal with issue like these without needing any help from grown-ups. But she needs to be reassured that the significant grown-ups in her life will always stand by her if she does the right thing.

Schoolground politics? It's a minefield.

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