Images..

I had gone for a parent counselling meet to my children's school last saturday. The counsellor was talking about different tools they were using in school and she mentioned teamwork as one of the tools used for social skills. The teachers decides the groups and the topic is given to them..now it is assumed out here that the children know how to work as a team and there is basically no follow up after the activity for the children to understand how they worked as a team. The focus is on the end product and that's it. I put up this point and wanted the school to focus on the process of working as a team and not on the end product. I received very defensive reactions to it. The Principal asked the teachers what they are doing now and whether they have thought about this? One of the teachers who was supposedly the spokesperson for all the teachers present there started explaining what great work they are doing with children and as teachers they knew what is best for children etc etc which i realised had nothing to do with what i said. The principal and the counsellor intervened to make her understand that we were talking about the process. The teacher was still not listening and then she said something which got to me. Her exact words,'As a teacher i know about the children and when i give them any kind of work as a group i make sure that the group is properly divided, i don't want to say this but i put an intelligent child with an average child so that the group is balanced and the work can be done'.
I just did not like what she said and i kind of lost my cool for that minute and told her in not so many words that if as a facilitator she has already made assumptions about the children how can i as a parent expect that my child is treated fairly at school and i also told her that she needs to open her mind when she is working with children. The Principal intervened fearing a major argument and brought the teamwork issue into proper perspective and said that they would work on that.
But what the teacher said has left me with a very unpleasant feeling. Is that one of her images and it was something which she said but did not believe in it or is it that she really believes in what she said.
If it is something which she believes and thinks that she is right about what she thinks of a child what damage would it cause to the children ..those who are not thought to be capable and also those who are thoguht to be capable ..would they be able to come out of these boxes in which they have been put????