I Think My 4-Year-Old’s Teacher Actively Hates Her

We recently had our first parent-teacher conference for our 4-year-old daughter at her transitional kindergarten. The teacher had nothing positive or nice to say about my child except that she was smart (very briefly). She then went on to say my daughter is bossy and interrupts her sometimes. She also said my daughter wasn’t always following instructions. It honestly sounded like she was very annoyed with my child overall. I tried asking questions about what was being done for discipline and what we could do at home to support our kid, and she didn’t answer either question but just kept giving more examples where my daughter wasn’t acting as she wanted.

My daughter has never received this type of feedback from previous teachers or care providers and is a very sweet kid with lots of friends. I am so sad that my kid’s teacher seems not to like her, but worse, has labeled her as bossy, inattentive, and disruptive. Not once were these framed as positive attributes (confident, assertive, etc.), nor were solutions provided. She said bossy many times (over 10!) when describing my kid. For what it’s worth, the teacher is white and my daughter is not. It’s not an option to switch schools until next year. How do I make sure this teacher is treating my child fairly and with kindness and respect when she cannot speak about my child positively?

—Proud Parent of a “Bossy” Kid

https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/10/hateful-teacher-care-and-feeding.html