Unfair ba si Teacher kay Anak?

[fibia]

I want to seek your opinion on how to address this matter, because nagkasagutan na kami ng teacher ng anak ko dahil dito.

My daughter studies in an exclusive school for girls. She is in Grade 1. This is her 2nd year in this school

I received a note from my daughter's diary like this on Feb 19:

Grade 1 Musical (Performance Task) - Frozen
When: March 7
Please wear your costume as you come to school.
*Improvised costume is highly encouraged (No need to buy)
List of songs
my daughter's class number was assigned "Love is an open Door" which was sung by characters "Anna" and "Hans".

So my daughter wanted to be Elsa, but due to the song assignment i persuaded her to be Anna instead.

So i immediately asked my suking modista to craft a costume for Sophia and she finished in a weeks time.

Last Friday (Feb28), exactly a week before the musical, her character assignment is HANS.

I talked to the subject teacher today (Monday) and informed her we already have a ready costume for "Anna".

After a while i got a call from the Class ADviser, telling me i cant insist on the costume because its assigned already. I explained to her i made early preparations but she disregarded this.
She further insisted - 1) it is not FAIR for the other parents who also prepared already; 2) i should have clarified with them.   

I talked to my daughter today and i found out that:

As of Feb 28 (Fri),  of the 7 kids assigned this song, SHE is the only one assigned as HANS, while 6 girls are ANNA. My daughter came home crying because  Teacher said "she to make a sacrifice (by being the kontrabida boy HANS" while the rest are ANNA.

On MOnday (March3), after my talk with the Class Adviser, the subject teacher changed the Friday assignment and assigned 2 more girls to be HANS. so thats 3 boys (HANS), and 4 girls (ANNA). The Teacher also reprimanded my daughter for asking us to "buy" her costume, but in reality she DID NOT, it was I who made arrangements with the costume, she just showed me the diary.

My daughter will still remain HANS. She appeared to feel better playing Hans now they will be 3 girls who will dress as the "villain"

What im really angry and disappointed about, it that the class adviser told me IT IS UNFAIR for other parents if i insist, without considering how UNFAIR it is for me as a parent also, that i made early preparations only to be advised later on about the character assignment. 

What they could have put there in the initial note "Please wait for further announcements on the children's roles"; or "Roles for each student TO FOLLOW."

Ultimately, it is only a Music Performance Task. It's an exercise (practicum) in Music subject, and lasts for 50 minutes once a week. The parents aren't even invited to view the musicale. So why all this "required" costume  and notifiying us late about it?

[Chakadoll22]

hi sis. i can't relate that much since my eldest is an incoming nursery pa lang this june. but I'm very much aware of frozen. it's my daughter's 1st fave movie and she loves to watch it 'all the time' kung pwede lang  she loves elsa and hates hans. feeling ko naman noone wants to be hans. but given that your daughter is in an exclusive school and somebody has to play his role, no choice but to assign it sa girl/s dba?

imo, medyo magulo nga si teacher. the notes on the diary are very important. tama ka sis, kung mababago pa pala yung assignment eh sana may 'wait for further..' they should also be considerate sa feelings ng students, if magulo pa wag na muna ipaalam sa kids kung ano yung role then babaguhin din ulit. eh nung anna nga parang di gusto then naging hans pa. pero baka naman sa vocal quality yung basis nila sis? baka kaya ng anak mo yung kay hans? or sa class number talaga? fair pa yata kung bunutan, hihi

[marose17]

I think the problem lies with poor communication between the class adviser and parents.  Work on having more open lines of communication (for next school year at least).  It will also help if parents have a way of communicating with each other.  Ideally, may class parent representative dapat na may access sa class adviser.  That's the way it is in the school of my children and so far, wala pa naman similar incident na nangyari.  We parents know that we can relay our clarificatory questions about any school matter either through the 1) homework notebook or 2) through the class parent representative.

For now though, for the sake of your daughter, accept things as they are, charge the incident to experience and encourage your daughter to enjoy the program.  What's important is that your daughter will learn to be flexible and enjoy playing the role assigned to her.

[DV]

The teacher is crazy!!!! Hahaha. May anak na babae ba si teacher? She probably doesn't understand how big this is with all the little girls (and a few boys)! Sinong bata ang gustong maging Hans when some are Anna? My daughter would rather be Olaf (her favorite) than Hans (or Kristoff). Ang daming kanta, bakit yung boy-girl duet ang pinili nya, e wala namang boys sa class? Frozen is like Star Wars to them, super hard core. 

But... given the assignment, you really should have clarified with the teacher what your daughter's role was going to be. Since there are no boys, you can't just assume that your daughter will be Anna and just immediately get your mananahi to make the costume (sorry, but you were probably thinking that if you already get the costume made, you can insist with the teacher na Anna na sya agad--even you wanted her to be Anna!), when it was specified that the costumes should be improvised/not bought. Hindi dapat sumama ang loob mo kasi ikaw yung hindi sumunod sa rules (kaya napagalitan yung daughter mo).

Yes, unfair si teacher for initially assigning just her to be Hans (really crazy), but this is not about minding what other children have to do, your job is to prepare your child for her role (kahit pa Sven yan). We don't always get what we want, we can't all be stars in the show. Teach her to be the best Hans (or tree, or cloud, or bug...) that she can be.

[KVsWahmmy]

Hmmm... I can see why you might think teacher was unfair, kasi nga naman, 6 na Anna, tapos 1 Hans lang? That part really was...rather weird. Or they could have taken another song, ang ganda ganda ng soundtrack ng Frozen, and a lot of the songs were sung by either Anna or Elsa, or why not Olaf's song? Para walang need for one to be a boy.

BUT...I have to agree with sis DV, it wasn't necessary na magpagawa agad ng costume dahil hindi pa clear whether she will be Anna or Hans, and the song is a duet, so talagang either of the two sya. If the case was you were informed na she will be Anna, then you had a costume made, and then biglang naging Hans na sya, ayun you can definitely call that unfair. Pero in this case, I'd have to say you acted lang prematurely, so ayun sayang si outfit. Maybe....you could try selling it to one of the Anna's para hindi sayang? Or save it for Trick or Treating this year! Anyways, a Frozen costume, given its influence magnitude on the kids, will never be 'sayang'. Cheer up mommy, and make it a point that you tell the teacher to establish clearer and more specific instructions for activities next time