china mom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2010
My 7th grader participated in Challenge dayat school this week https://www.challengeday.org/
She came home to tell us about it and she had a lot of fun and seemed to have understood the program (anti-bullying, inclusiveness etc). But, she really only seemed to take two things away from it. First, she related to us that while it was fun, it was also very sad. Apparently one of the speakers talked tot he kids about her miscarriage and "everyone got sad and some kids cried".
I don't get the point of discussing this with 7th graders. My daughter is away of what a miscarriage is because we had discussed it after there was a reference to one in a show we had been watching. I do not shelter her but can't put the connection together.
The oly other thing she remembered was an exercise where all f the kids were placed on one side of the room and they would be told "if you have ever______, move to the other side of the room"
One of the questions was if your parents were divorced. I think there may have been a question about having lost a parent. The one question that caused my daughter to cross the room was "If you were adopted"
I know that the exercise was to show that everybody has something and is supposed to teach inclusion and acceptance. But, some of these topics are very personal. I have always taught my daughter that her story is her story to tell or not to tell. She is not ashamed to be Chinese or adopted but she just wants to be like everybody else. She does not want to be the Chinese girl or the adopted girl, she just wants to be a girl.
I have a dear friend whose daughter has a very tragic adoption story involving drug use, child neglect and a parent who eventually died of an overdose. That is her story to tell or not tell.
Has anyone else had a child participate in Challenge Day? Any good or bad vibes? I am usually the last one to get overly sensitive or critical but this struck me as a little wrong.
She came home to tell us about it and she had a lot of fun and seemed to have understood the program (anti-bullying, inclusiveness etc). But, she really only seemed to take two things away from it. First, she related to us that while it was fun, it was also very sad. Apparently one of the speakers talked tot he kids about her miscarriage and "everyone got sad and some kids cried".
I don't get the point of discussing this with 7th graders. My daughter is away of what a miscarriage is because we had discussed it after there was a reference to one in a show we had been watching. I do not shelter her but can't put the connection together.
The oly other thing she remembered was an exercise where all f the kids were placed on one side of the room and they would be told "if you have ever______, move to the other side of the room"
One of the questions was if your parents were divorced. I think there may have been a question about having lost a parent. The one question that caused my daughter to cross the room was "If you were adopted"
I know that the exercise was to show that everybody has something and is supposed to teach inclusion and acceptance. But, some of these topics are very personal. I have always taught my daughter that her story is her story to tell or not to tell. She is not ashamed to be Chinese or adopted but she just wants to be like everybody else. She does not want to be the Chinese girl or the adopted girl, she just wants to be a girl.
I have a dear friend whose daughter has a very tragic adoption story involving drug use, child neglect and a parent who eventually died of an overdose. That is her story to tell or not tell.
Has anyone else had a child participate in Challenge Day? Any good or bad vibes? I am usually the last one to get overly sensitive or critical but this struck me as a little wrong.